A 33-year-old Doctors Without Borders physician who recently treated Ebola patients in Guinea was rushed in an ambulance with police escorts from his Harlem home to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday, sources said.
Craig Spencer, who was was suffering from Ebola-like symptoms — a 103-degree fever and nausea — spent Wednesday night bowling in Williamsburg, the sources said. He used Uber taxis to get there and back.
He landed at JFK airport on Oct. 17 on a connecting flight from Brussels, a source said. Spencer’s temperature was 98.7 degrees upon arrival, the source added.
Clad in hazmat suits, FDNY hazardous materials specialists sealed off his fifth-floor apartment around noon. Cops blocked off West 147th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam after he was taken to the hospital, witness Oscar Nunez said.
Another witness saw a person wrapped in blankets “like a mummy” being lifted from a wheelchair to a stretcher that was placed inside an ambulance.
“EMS HAZ TAC Units transferred to Bellevue Hospital a patient who presented a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms,” the Health Department wrote in a statement.
Spencer had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Africa, treating Ebola patients in Guinea, sources said.
He’s undergoing testing at Bellevue to see if he has the deadly virus.
“After consulting with the hospital and the CDC, DOHMH has decided to conduct a test for the Ebola virus because of this patient’s recent travel history, pattern of symptoms, and past work,” the Health Department said.
Test results should be available in the next 12 hours, they added.
As health officials wait for the results to come in, the case is being treated as if it were already confirmed, according to council member Mark Levine, who represents Spencer’s neighborhood.
“I want to assure everyone in Northern Manhattan that City, State and Federal public health authorities are responding with the highest possible level of urgency and marshaling every resource at their disposal to respond to this possible case,” he said in a statement.
Video: Roy Renna for NY Post
“I want to reiterate that this has not yet been confirmed as an Ebola case but every precaution is being taken as if it were.”
A team of disease detectives are now trying to identify others who may have come in contact with the doctor and could be at risk.
The NYPD’s missing persons squad is also looking at his subway card, credit card and bank statements to follow his trail, law enforcement sources said.
“The Health Department staff has established protocols to identify, notify, and, if necessary, quarantine any contacts of Ebola cases,” they said.
Spencer notified Doctors Without Borders about his fever Thursday morning, the organization said in a statement.
“As per the specific guidelines that Doctors Without Borders provides its staff on their return from Ebola assignments, the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately,” the statement says.
Robert Cedano, who works in Spencer’s Harlem building, said he’s worried about catching the deadly disease.
“It’s worrisome,” he told The Post. “But he’s been away for a long time. I don’t know when he got back. But he’s gone now so I’m relieved. We just can’t let anyone in the building right now except for the police and the health department.”
Residents at the building were handed fliers with bullet points on Ebola, including symptoms and how the virus is transmitted.
Friend and neighbor John Roston, 38, said Spencer lives with his girlfriend, Morgan Dixon, and is a “really nice person.”
A law enforcement source said the two were together after he arrived home from Guinea.
“I believe she is a fiancee,” the source said.
Spencer posted a photo of himself in protective gear on Sept. 18 from Brussels, Belgium, where many West Africa-bound passengers catch connecting flights.
“Off to Guinea with Doctors Without Borders (MSF),” he wrote. “Please support organizations that are sending support or personnel to West Africa, and help combat one of the worst public health and humanitarian disasters in recent history.”
On Oct. 16, he checked in again from a hotel in the Belgian capital.
“Glad to see that you made it out! Will see you when you are back in NY,” wrote Sanjay Gupta.