New York City doctor Craig Spencer has been declared Ebola-free and will be released from a New York City hospital on Tuesday morning, leaving U.S. hospitals free of patients with the deadly disease.
New York City’s health department said in a statement that Spencer was free of the Ebola virus and “poses no public health risk,” warranting his discharge.
Spencer, 33, was hospitalized on Oct. 23 after registering a fever of 100.3. His movements around the city before his hospitalization prompted the New York and New Jersey governors to impose mandatory quarantine orders for health care workers returning from the Ebola zone, leading to nurse Kaci Hickox’s quarantine in Newark, New Jersey.
Spencer contracted Ebola after working with patients through Doctors Without Borders in Guinea. International aid groups and global health experts say that staffing shortages are one of the biggest barriers to stopping the disease.
Spencer was the fourth person in the U.S. to be diagnosed with Ebola. Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man, was the first and, thus far, only person to die of the disease. Nurses Amber Vinson and Nina Pham, who contracted Ebola after treating Duncan, have both recovered and been released.
Suzy Khimm