Child Tested for Ebola at New York Hospital

A young child was taken to a New York hospital on Sunday night to be monitored and tested for Ebola, health officials said, as the city looks to contain the disease after a doctor who treated patients in West Africa became the first in the city to test positive last week.

The child, identified by news outlets as a five-year-old boy, developed a fever on Monday morning, and had been in one of the three Ebola-affected countries in West Africa in the last 21 days. The city’s health department said he was transferred to Bellevue Hospital by specialists wearing full personal protective equipment. When the patient was transferred to the hospital he was not feverish, but a fever developed early Monday. Due to the patient’s travel history and symptoms, he is undergoing a test for Ebola, as well as tests for other possible illnesses. Results are expected within the next 12 hours. The health department has already started the tracking other people he may have come into contact with.

The health department took similar precautions for Craig Spencer, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in New York, who is currently being treated for the disease at Bellevue.