A freelance cameraman from Rhode Island is now the second person from New England to test positive for the Ebola virus. He had been working for NBC and covering the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, but will receive treatment in the United States.

The cameraman, identified by NECN as 33-year-old Ashoka Mukpo, joined an NBC News crew on Tuesday to work with the network’s medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman. Two days later, he was at a treatment center showing some symptoms of the disease and ultimately tested positive, according to the Associated Press.

The rest of the crew and Dr. Snyderman are being flown back to the United States as well. While they have no symptoms of Ebola, the AP reports they will be quarantined for 21 days as a precaution.


Initial reports, apparently based on a Facebook profile for Mukpo, indicated that the cameraman’s hometown was Providence, R.I. This was later confirmed by NBC.

The cameraman is the fifth American to test positive for the virus and the second person from New England. The other local resident to receive treatment for Ebola was 51-year-old Dr. Rick Sacra of Holden, Mass. Sacra said he may have contracted the disease while helping women deliver their babies in Liberia. He received treatment in Nebraska and has since recovered and been released.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health emphasized in a press conference Friday afternoon that although several suspicious cases have been investigated, none has been so serious as to have tests sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There are no Ebola cases in Massachusetts, and the possibility of an Ebola case in the Commonwealth remains very low,’’ said an advisory from Mass. DPH on Friday. “Massachusetts is well prepared to handle an incidence of Ebola, in the unlikely event that a case should occur in the Commonwealth.’’

Despite the fact that suspected cases have yielded negative test results for Ebola so far, the state’s public health officials are continuing to urge hospitals to be especially vigilent and err on the side of caution.