Spencer, 33, says ‘I am healthy and no longer infectious’ and leaves hospital in New York to rapturous applause

Craig Spencer, the doctor who was diagnosed with Ebola days after returning to New York City from Guinea, declared himself a “living example” of how the established protocols to deal with the disease had worked.

Amid jubilance, cheers and hugs from medical staff and health officials as he left Bellevue hospital in New York, Spencer thanked the doctors who cared for him. In what appeared to be a coded reference to the panicked response to his infection from some quarters, he said that his recovery demonstrated the effectiveness of the procedures that were already in place when he was diagnosed.

“Today I am healthy and no longer infectious,” he said.

He was declared free of the virus after rigorous testing, the city health department said in a statement on Monday. His discharge, less than three weeks after his diagnosis, means no US hospitals are treating Ebola patients at this time.

Spencer was criticised for having travelled round New York after he returned from west Africa. In the days before he was diagnosed, he went for a jog, ate in a restaurant and went to a bowing alley in Brooklyn.

But Spencer stuck to guidelines put in place by Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): he monitored his health every day, and at the first sign of an elevated temperature, he called officials. Within hours, he had been transferred to Bellevue by medical staff wearing full protective gear, under the city’s procedures to deal with a potential Ebola infection.

In the controversy that followed, New York state governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey governor Chris Christie introduced tougher procedures for people returning from west Africa, that resulted in the detention of an MSF nurse at Newark airport in New Jersey. She forcefully criticised her treatment, saying it would prevent more volunteers going to west Africa to help fight the disease.



Speaking at Bellevue hospital on Tuesday, Spencer said the established procedures had worked. “My recovery from Ebola speaks to the effectiveness of the protocols in place for health staff returning from west Africa,” he said. In the written version of the statement, published by MSF, he made clear he was referring to protocols in force “at the time of my infection”.

He went on: “I am a living example of how those protocols work, and of how early detection and isolation is critical tosurviving Ebola and ensuring it is not transmitted to others.”

After his diagnosis, his fiancee was placed under a 21-day quarantine that ends the morning of 14 November. Two friends who were initially quarantined are still under active monitoring by health officials.

Cuomo, who was not present at the Bellevue press conference, issued a statement just before it began, in which he said that a cautious response was justified.

“Today is proof that proper preparedness and erring on the side of caution can save lives. On behalf of all New Yorkers, I am greatly relieved to hear of Dr Spencer’s recovery and thank him for his important and heroic work on the front lines of this devastating epidemic in west Africa,” he said.

Cuomo said the state and city health authorities had learned from mistakes in Dallas, where Thomas Duncan, a Liberian who had been exposed to Ebola in his home country, was initially turned away from hospital despite showing signs of the disease. Duncan died nearly two weeks after he first sought treatment. He is the only Ebola patient to die in the US.

De Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, embraced the physician, who the mayor called “a real hero”. “He’s suffered a lot these last few weeks, but he’s come back really strong,” De Blasio said. He also praised Spencer’s parents, who were in the audience, for raising such a philanthropic and selfless young man.

The 33-year-old physician was diagnosed on 23 October, days after returning from treating patients in Guinea. He was treated in anisolation unit at the hospital, although this was not among the nation’s four special infectious disease units.

His condition was upgraded from serious to stable last week, and he felt well enough to request an exercise bike and a banjo. Spencer received several treatments, including doses of an experimental drug and blood plasma donated by Ebola survivor, Nancy Writebol, a missionary who contracted the disease in Liberia.

Spencer was described by Dr Laura Evans, who oversaw his care, as a “brave and caring doctor with a great sense of humor”. The medical staff agreed with claps and smiles every time someone mentioned the doctor’s sense of humor. Evans said he played an active role in his recovery, but did not provide more details.



During the press conference, Spencer sought to shift the attention from his recovery, urging the international community and media to focus on the outbreak ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. “My infection represents but a fraction of the more than 13,000 cases reported to date in west Africa,” he said.

Spencer spent more than five weeks working at an Ebola treatment center in Guéckédou, Guinea. “During this time, I cried as I held children who were not strong enough to survive the virus. But, I also experienced immense joy when patients I treated were cured and invited me into their family as a brother upon discharge.”

Sophie Delaunay, the executive director of MSF, echoed Spencer’s remarks, and implored the international community to act in west Africa.

“We must not let our guard down,” she said during the press conference. “Complacency, false security and, above all, fear are Ebola’s greatest allies.”