New York doctor now free of Ebola discharged from hospital

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York doctor who
has recovered from Ebola left the hospital on
Tuesday and urged support for U.S. health
workers treating patients in West Africa so
they do not face "stigma and threats" when they
return home.
The discharge of Dr. Craig Spencer, who
worked with Ebola patients in Guinea and had
been held in isolation at Bellevue Hospital
Center since he was diagnosed with the virus on
Oct. 23, means no one in the United States is
being treated for the disease.
Looking gaunt but happy, Spencer, 33, high-
fived Bellevue nurses and was hugged by New
York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the mayor's
wife, Chirlane McCray, and a handful of other
officials at a news conference before his
release.
"My infection represents a fraction of the more
than 13,000 reported cases in West Africa, the
center of the outbreak," said Spencer, a
physician from NewYork-Presbyterian/
Columbia University Medical Center who
worked overseas with Doctors Without
Borders.
"Please join me in turning our attention back to
West Africa and ensuring that medical
volunteers and other aid workers do not face
stigma and threats returning home," said
Spencer, who lives in an apartment in Harlem
with his fiancée, Morgan Dixon.
The city also released Dixon from a mandatory
quarantine at the apartment on Tuesday.
A handful of U.S. states have imposed
mandatory quarantines on health workers
returning from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone, where the outbreak has killed more than
4,900 people so far this year. The federal
government has warned the quarantines may
discourage volunteers.
Spencer's diagnosis followed trips on the
subway to eat out and go bowling with friends,
provoking public alarm, which public health
experts said was unfounded, about the possible
spread of the virus.
"It's a very, very good day," de Blasio said. "Dr.
Spencer is Ebola-free and New York City is
Ebola-free."
President Barack Obama spoke to Spencer from
China by phone early on Wednesday morning to
herald his recovery, the White House said in a
statement.
"The President commended Dr. Spencer for his
selflessness and compassion in fighting this
disease on the frontlines in West Africa," the
statement said, adding that he believed the best
way to protect against Ebola at home was to
keep fighting the disease at its source.
In North Carolina, health officials said on
Monday that a missionary, Dr. John
Fankhauser, 52, of Ventura, California, was
deemed to be at "some risk" for developing the
disease after returning from Liberia and had
been quarantined for 21 days.
There has been only one Ebola death in the
United States - Thomas Eric Duncan, who
contracted the disease in his native Liberia and
died during a visit to Dallas.
Medical experts say Ebola can be transmitted
only through the bodily fluids of a sick person
with symptoms.