FIPS Broken News: Park Slope Resident Thought He Had Contracted Ebola Virus

As the news broke that Ebola has surfaced down in Texas, it might frighten Slopers to know that it actually could have been a lot closer than we ever thought. Park Slope resident, Mahmoud Ideraabdullah thought he had the deadly virus after coming in contact with a man who later died from the disease. Ideraabdullah is Executive director of Imani House, a Manhattan-based non profit that operates clinics around Monrovia , Libera.

As reported by DNAinfo, Ideraabdullah was in Libera for six month's managing one of the clinics. During that time, two of the clinic's staff members were killed by Ebola. Right before flying back home to NYC, Ideraabdullah heard rumors that the clinic's registrar had the disease even though he was telling everyone he was fine. The registrar claimed he was tested at Ideraabdullah's insistence and when he called to check up, the registrar reported he tested negative. It turns out the registrar was turned away from the test because had no signs of the disease. He returned to work telling his coworkers he felt fine when in fact he was carrying the virus. He infected a fellow coworker who died with days of testing positive for Ebola and eventually the registrar died on September 21. 

When this news reached Iderabdullah he said he "became very fearful. We didn't know if we had encountered Ebola in the [registar's] house." After twenty-one days of self-imposed quarantine in his Park Slope home, Ideraabdullah developed no symptoms and says he  is finally in the clear. 

And after all that fear, he and his wife Bisi want to raise money for supplies, like hazmat gear for their staff, and then go back to Liberia themselves to help. Why? "We're the only clinic in the area. We have 22 staff there. They've become family. We don't have the heart to abandon them."

According to the CDC health care workers are only required to tell health officials if they come in direct contact with bodily fluids of an Ebola infected patient. Civilians don't have to notify health officials even if they've had close contact with someone infected by the Ebola virus. Iderabdullah, himself, was shocked at how lax JFK was in it's screening of people flying into the airport from Libera:

“I was a little surprised, I would have thought that with the crisis as it exists in West Africa, there would have been [screening.] In this epidemic, it wouldn’t hurt as an extra precaution if they wanted to make sure it didn’t spread into the United States.”

To me, that's very scary. What's awesome is that a Park Sloper did the right thing by self-imposing a quarantine and even though he's in the clear, wants to put himself at risk again to help others. Ebola has claimed over 3000 lives in West Africa. That is devotion to those in need and selfless courage in my book.