Another person has been tested positive for Ebola virus in the U.S. 33-year old Craig Spencer was treating Ebola patients in Guinea, one of the Ebola-hit nations in West Africa, with the organisation Doctors Without Borders. He had returned to New York 10 days ago, and developed fever and gastrointestinal symptoms after reaching US.
He is the fourth person diagnosed with Ebola in the US, and the first to be diagnosed outside Dallas, Texas. After developing symptoms he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center Thursday. (Read: 10 reasons that make the Ebola virus deadly for humans).
Dr Ross Wilson, Chief medical offier of New York mentioned that the city is prepared to treat Ebola .'We have the personnel, the equipment and the expertise to mange the emergency,' he said.
Fever: Increase in body temperature is the first defence mechanism that the body uses to kill any foreign particle invading the body. When Ebola infects the body, it causes a release of various compounds like cytokines and histamines that pass on the signals of increasing body temperature. In fact, Ebola virus disease is also called the Ebola haemorrhagic fever, where the temperature can go above 38.6 C or 101.5 F. (Read: What is the Ebola virus disease survival rate?)
Headache: It is the most common symptom of Ebola infection after fever, present in almost 96 percent of the cases. Nausea and headache along with fever present a typical case of common cold and flu. At this stage, the symptoms can be confused with other common infections. (Read: Ebola virus causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention)
Stomach pain: A few viral particles invade the liver and starts destroying the hepatocytes. New virions start damaging the intestinal cells causing abdominal pain.
With inputs from IANS
Photo source: Getty images
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