NYC doctor with Ebola upgraded to stable

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The doctor who became infected with Ebola has been upgraded to stable as he undergoes treatment at Bellevue Hospital.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation released a statement Saturday that said due to Dr. Craig Spencer's "clinical progress and response to treatment, today HHC is updating his condition to 'stable' from 'serious but stable'. The patient will remain in isolation and continue to receive full treatment."

Spencer has been awake, communicating, and in good spirits, and health officials have said in the past that Spencer's condition will likely worsen before it gets better.

Spencer is receiving antiviral therapy as well as plasma therapy, HHC said. The therapies have been used to treat Ebola patients at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and at the Nebraska Medical Center.

Spencer received a plasma transfusion from Nancy Writebol, the U.S. aid worker who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Liberia but was later cured. They have the same blood type.

The mayor and health officials note that Ebola is difficult to contract. It has to be transmitted through bodily fluids.

Spencer's fiancee, Morgan Dixon, is being quarantined in her Hamilton Heights apartment, where she will remain for 21 days. The apartment was thoroughly sterilized after Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola.

"She is required to stay in that apartment, she is able to receive deliveries to that apartment, but she is unfortunately not allowed to receive visitors," said the city's deputy health commissioner, Dr. Jay Varma.

City officials stressed that Dixon and two other people Spencer came in contact with are completely healthy.

Spencer's is the only confirmed Ebola case in New York.

His case prompted the governors of New York and New Jersey to declare a mandatory quarantine for travelers who have been exposed to Ebola in West Africa.

(Some information in this story is from the Associated Press.)