Aliyya Swaby Photo
Update 5:10 p.m.: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the negative results of a Yale graduate student’s preliminary Ebola virus test from the Massachusetts State Public Health laboratory, according to a hospital release Friday evening.
The student will still be isolated for 21 days, ending a scare that held the city in its grip for much of Thursday.
At just after 5 p.m. Thursday, Dr. Thomas Balcezak, chief medical officer for Yale-New Haven Hospital, confirmed in a statement that the graduate student who was admitted to the hospital Thursday morning with Ebola-like symptoms had tested negative.
The student is one of two unidentified Yale doctoral students who recently returned from a research trip to Liberia. Yale University President Peter Salovey said in an e‑mail to the Yale community Thursday night that both students will be quarantined for 21 days from their return, as required by state law.
“In the meantime we will continue to monitor the patient using all appropriate protocols and precautions in order to ensure the safety of our staff, patients and community,” Blacezak said in the statement.
After exhibiting “Ebola-like symptoms,” the student was admitted to the hospital Wednesday night, prompting a test of the city and the state’s Ebola precautionary procedures. The health status of the other student remained a mystery Thursday evening.
“The Mayor is relieved with the results of the testing and shares with city residents a sense of gratitude for a well coordinated response,” mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer told the Independent Thursday evening.
Yale-New Haven had not confirmed or ruled out a diagnosis of Ebola or any other ailment by Thursday morning. Hospital officials said early on that the hospital was well equipped to safely care for the student and that their patient care did not impact any other patients in the hospital. Yale-New Haven’s outpatient clinics and emergency departments remained open Thursday.
Salovey sent an email to the university community Thursday afternoon to allay fears.
“The doctoral students who visited Liberia are knowledgeable about public health,” Salovey wrote in the e‑mail. “They have reported that they were not in contact with Ebola patients or caregivers in Liberia, that they carefully followed recommended travel and hygiene precautions during their stay in the country and that they have continued to do so since their return.”
At a press conference 2 p.m. Thursday, Gov. Dannel Malloy authorized state and local officials to implement the protocols for quarantine and isolation established in an order he signed Oct. 7. The order allows the state public health department to quarantine people exposed to the virus.
He also pulled together a Unified Command Team of state officials to guide the state’s response, and directed every hospital in the state to perform response drill next week to ensure their procedures and emergency services were up to snuff.
Malloy said that the state should go beyond the CDC’s recommendations and be preemptive in its response.
“I want everyone to know — from the nurses in our emergency rooms to our first responders and our law enforcement personnel — we will provide whatever resources we have at our disposal so that you can do your critically important jobs safely and effectively,” Malloy said.
The U.S. has had three confirmed cases of the Ebola virus. Thomas Duncan, a Liberian national, died of the disease in Dallas Oct. 8. Two Dallas nurses who gave him care are currently being treated.
Just received Mayor Harp's feverish robo-call reporting that the test results for the Yale student were negative, and God bless us one and all. This strikes me as political opportunism, trying to raise one's profile as a leader via cheap drama, while adding fuel to the fire of exaggerated public fears: even if the test results had been positive, and I am very glad that they were not, the risk to the citizens of New Haven would have been extremely low, and use of the public alert system in this way can offer no guidance to the public regarding their day-to-day routines, nor did the robo-call offer any solid information that would serve to lessen panic. Why do we not receive a robo-call every time a child is struck by a bullet from a handgun in our city? This is the true public health calamity.