Ebola has been ruled out as the cause of a health scare in New York, after two patients were rushed to hospital by health workers in hazmat suits.
The patients were transported from a City MD on East 125th Street and Lexington Avenue by emergency workers in hazmat suits, after it was believed the patients had contracted the deadly African haemorrhagic fever.
Officials later said it was likely the patients had norovirus and not Ebola.
The patients are believed to have had contact with an individual who had travelled from Uganda and had signs consistent with the early stages of Ebola. However, the speed with which the infection then travelled between family members suggested it was not Ebola but norovirus.
“Neither patient had exposure to Ebola or other factors that would indicate risk,” Interim Commissioner of Health at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Dr. Michelle Morse wrote on X.
Ebola is generally spread through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Its symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and internal and external bleeding. Many of these symptoms are similar to those of norovirus; although norovirus is usually not deadly. Without treatment, 90% of Ebola cases are fatal.