Doctor disgnosed with Ebola in New York

A doctor who returned to New York after treating Ebola patients in west Africa has tested positive for the virus - the first confirmed case in the city and America's fourth.

Craig Spencer, 33, who had been working in Guinea with the charity Doctors Without Borders, returned more than a week ago and yesterday reported coming down with a 103-degree fever and diarrhoea.

He is being treated in an isolation ward at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola centre.

The doctor's Harlem apartment has been cordoned off and the city's disease detectives have been tracing his contacts to identify anyone who may be at risk.

He is the fourth confirmed case in America and the first in New York, the nation's biggest city. A further test by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention will confirm the initial results.

President Barack Obama had been briefed on the situation, the White House said.

New York's mayor Bill de Blasio and state governor Andrew Cuomo urged residents not to be alarmed. Mr De Blasio said all city officials followed "clear and strong" protocols in their handling and treatment of Dr Spencer.

"We want to state at the outset that New Yorkers have no reason to be alarmed," Mr de Blasio said. "New Yorkers who have not been exposed are not at all at risk."

City officials say A and E medic Dr Spencer said he had travelled on the tube network and took a cab to a Brooklyn bowling alley in the past week before the symptoms emerged.

His fiancée, who is not showing symptoms, is being watched in a quarantine ward at Bellevue.

Department of Health workers have been giving out information to residents near Dr Spencer's home.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio said proper protocols were followed every step of the way and it did not appear the doctor had been showing symptoms for very long.

"The patient is in good shape and has gone into a great deal of detail with our personnel as to his actions the last few days so we have a lot to work with," he said earlier.

"We have a patient who has been very communicative and precise and who has only been back a very short time and has been quite clear about individuals he had close contact with."

According to a rough timeline provided by city officials, Dr Spencer's symptoms developed on Wednesday, prompting him to isolate himself in his apartment.

When he felt worse yesterday, he and his fiancée made a joint call to authorities to detail his symptoms and his travels. Paramedics in full Ebola gear took him to Bellevue in an ambulance surrounded by police cars.

"As per the specific guidelines that Doctors Without Borders provides its staff on their return from Ebola assignments, the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately," the international humanitarian organisation said.

As of October 14, the organisation said 16 staff members have been infected and nine had died.

Dr Spencer, who works at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Centre, had not seen any patients or been to the hospital since his return, the hospital said.

He was a "dedicated humanitarian" who "went to an area of medical crisis to help a desperately underserved population. He is a committed and responsible physician who always puts his patients first", it said.

Health experts say the chances of the average New Yorker contracting Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, are slim. People cannot be infected just by being near someone with Ebola and are not contagious unless they are sick. Symptoms are similar to malaria and cholera.

The Ebola epidemic in west Africa has killed about 4,800 people. In the United States, the first person diagnosed with the disease was a Liberian man who fell ill days after arriving in Dallas and later died, becoming the only fatality. Two nurses who treated him were infected and are in hospital.

Four American aid workers, including three doctors, were infected while working in Africa and were transferred to the US for treatment in recent months. All recovered.

Health care workers are vulnerable because of close contact with patients when they are their sickest and most contagious. In west Africa this year, more than 440 health workers have contracted Ebola and about half have died.

Dr Spencer, from Michigan, attended Wayne State University School of Medicine and Columbia's University Mailman School of Public Health.

According to his Facebook page, he left for west Africa via Brussels in mid-September. A photo shows him in full protective gear. He returned to Brussels on October 16.

"Off to Guinea with Doctors Without Borders," he wrote. "Please support organisations that are sending support or personnel to west Africa, and help combat one of the worst public health and humanitarian disasters in recent history."