A doctor who returned from treating Ebola patients in Africa to NYC in recent weeks has been hospitalized with a confirmed case of the virus.
Dr. Craig Spencer returned to his home in Harlem from Guinea last Friday, October 17. He had been checking his temperature twice a day, and Thursday, he had a fever of 100.3 degrees. NYC officials said that yesterday he traveled, via the 1 and L subway lines, to Williamsburg to bowl at The Gutter.
Williamsburg’s bowling alleys right now. Top photo: The Gutter. Bottom photo: Brooklyn Bowl. (Photos: @aymanndotcom) pic.twitter.com/MG0gBaKtKm
— ANIMALNewYork (@ANIMALNewYork) October 23, 2014
This morning, the venue posted an update on its Facebook page that the New York Health Department is working to clean and sanitize the venue, and that it expects to reopen sometime today:
We voluntarily decided to close The Gutter yesterday evening as a precautionary measure while we gathered more information. We are working with the NYC Health Department to have the bar cleaned and sanitized under their supervision and expect to be open sometime today after that is completed. Doctors advising the Health Department have told us that our staff and customers were at no risk.
Just how dangerous would “E-bowl-a” be in a bowling alley? The NY Times has produced this helpful explainer, Q. Can You Get Ebola From a Bowling Ball?:
A. Dr. Craig Spencer, the patient with Ebola currently in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Center, went bowling in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn on Wednesday evening. According to city health officials, he had been taking his temperature twice a day since he left Guinea on Oct. 14. His temperature was normal on Wednesday evening, and he did not yet have any other symptoms, such as nausea or diarrhea. Ebola experts say the disease cannot be transmitted before the appearance of symptoms.Although the surface of a shared bowling ball is a likely place to find germs — and some people avoid bowling for this very reason — it is extremely unlikely that Ebola could be passed that way. There is no evidence that it has been passed, as colds or flu sometimes are, by touching surfaces that someone else touched after sneezing into their hand. Ebola is normally passed through contact with blood, vomit or diarrhea.
If someone left blood, vomit or feces on a bowling ball, and the next person to touch it did not even notice, and then put his fingers into his eyes, nose or mouth, it might be possible. But, the Ebola virus does not not normally build up to high levels in saliva or mucus until very late in the disease — several days after the initial fever sets in — and it is unlikely that someone that ill would have just gone bowling. Also, the Ebola virus is fragile and susceptible to drying out. It does not normally survive for more than a few hours on a hard, dry surface.
[via The Guardian & New York Times]