Ebola madness
Teen cleared, but city on high alert
A TEEN who sparked an Ebola scare Friday when he was rushed to a Brooklyn hospital is recovering from another illness, relatives and officials said.
“He’s in the hospital now, but he’s doing fine,” said Aewaleed Ibraham, 54, the uncle of Jafar Bilal.
Jafar, 14, fell ill in his uncle’s Bergen Beach home Friday after returning from a three-month trip to Sudan, which is about 2,500 miles from the area of the Ebola outbreak.
“The patient in question was never at risk for Ebola,” Levi Fishman, a spokesman for the city Department of Health, said Saturday. “There are currently no patients at risk of having Ebola in New York City.”
Jafar was born in Sudan but moved with his family to New York when he was 7, relatives said. He now lives in Colorado.
The teen was hospitalized in Sudan shortly before flying to New York, relatives said Friday.
“He had a fever. No vomiting, no coughing,” his uncle said. “His white cells and red cells were very low.”
Doctors in Sudan couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the boy.
“They ran so many tests,” his uncle said. “They tested for typhoid and malaria. They all came back negative.”
Ibraham said the boy seemed to recover, but then got sick again after flying to the U.S. on Friday.
“He was feeling dizzy,” Ibraham said. “He could not stand up after the flight, so I called for the ambulance.”
The teenager remains at Brookdale University Hospital (below r.), where staff isolated him from other patients.
“Everybody was talking about it,” said a hospital worker who declined to give her name. “Of course it’s scary. But they made sure everyone knew what was going on and said we were prepared.”
Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. More than 4,000 people have died from the virus in West Africa. Sudan is on the eastern side of the continent.
The illness claimed its first U.S. victim Wednesday — a man in Dallas who had come from Liberia.
The NYPD distributed a memo to the entire force Friday outlining precautions for dealing with anyone with symptoms who has traveled in West Africa. Cops were instructed to wear protective clothing and to isolate potential victims.
“We are working with the various city agencies to ensure that all New Yorkers remain safe,” said NYPD spokeswoman Deputy Chief Kim Royster.
Lou Turco, head of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, applauded the memo as a first step and said he would make sure his members were prepared for a potential outbreak.
“They should survey their cars to make sure they have the gloves and the masks and the gowns,” Turco said. “It’s going to be an ongoing learning experience for all of us how to handle this.”
Turco worries cops won’t have time to take proper precautions with everyone they encounter during fast-moving emergencies.
“I don’t know how your protect yourself at all times,” he said. “I don’t think you can.”