Brooklyn man rushed to NYC hospital tested negative for Ebola
By RYAN GORMAN
A Brooklyn man recently back from West Africa tested negative for Ebola after he was rushed Thursday morning to a New York hospital.
The unidentified man, in his 50s, returned from Mali this weekend, sources told the New York Daily News. He was sent home Wednesday from a Brooklyn hospital, called 911 Thursday with symptoms of the lethal disease and was immediately taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Mali is not considered to be at the forefront of the lethal Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but a cluster of deaths has recently been reported by the World Health Organization inside the land-locked country, leading to officials' concerns.
An infectious disease expert recently told AOL News that should an outbreak on the scale of Guinea, Libera and Sierra Leone occur in Mali, the consequences would be "unpalatable."
The man went to Interfaith medical Center Wednesday with flu-like symptoms and was sent home, according to the Daily News.
He then woke up Thursday morning with nausea, chills, and body aches, according to the New York Post.
The timeline echoes the Thomas Eric Duncan case. Duncan arrived in Dallas two months ago with Ebola, was turned away from an area hospital and then admitted the following day.
Duncan tested positive for and then died of Ebola.
Paramedics in Hazmat suits approached the man's Bedford-Stuyvesant home Thursday morning as police closed off the entire Spencer Street block he lives on, sources told the Daily News.
An ambulance then raced the man to the same hospital where Dr. Craig Spencer, who volunteered in West Africa to help treat Ebola patients, was cured of the lethal virus.
"These are procedures we take in the interest of safety," the source told the paper earlier in the day. "It's a precautionary step. None of it confirms that this person has Ebola."
Had he tested positive, the individual would be the second Ebola patient in New York.
The lethal disease has killed two people in the U.S. and more than 5,000 people worldwide, according to health officials. A further 14,000 are known to be infected.
An AOL News request to the Health and Hospital Corporation of New York City seeking further details was not immediately returned.
This is a breaking story, more information will come as it is made available.
Related links:
Dr. Martin Salia becomes the second person to die in the US of Ebola
Ebola death toll in West Africa could become 'unpalatable,' expert says
'Dr. Spencer is Ebola-free': NY mayor de Blasio celebrates doc cured of lethal virus
