Singer Justin Bieber has been hospitalized with the ebola virus.
According to local reports, the teen heartthrob contracted the disease while visiting a fan with cancer at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the same facility where two American ebola patients are being treated.
“Basically it’s all his own fault,” says John Anderson, the hospital administrator who chaperoned Bieber’s visit. “On our way to oncology, we walked past the isolation ward. He asked me ‘What’s behind this door?’ and I told him ‘That’s the isolation ward. We can’t go in there.’
“And then he was like ‘What do you mean I can’t go in there? Do you know who I am? I can go wherever I want.’
“He demanded that I open the door, but I refused. So instead he waited until a nurse came through and snuck past her into the ward. Only then did he realize that the room housed our two ebola patients from Africa.
“The room locks automatically, so he was stuck in there for about an hour. After we got him out he tested positive for ebola. It’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen anybody do.”
Experts call the infection an isolated incident, and there is no danger to the public.
The ebola virus arrived in the U.S. this month after two American healthcare workers who contracted the illness in Africa returned home for care.
The deadly disease causes a vicious hemorrhagic fever and carries a 50% - 90% mortality rate.
“We seriously considered not treating him,”says Dr. Lance Gibbons, head of infectious disease research at the hospital. “On the one hand we had a moral obligation to provide care. On the other hand, his music is arguably a public health hazard.
“Ultimately we decided to give him treatment. But it was a tough call.”
Bieber has maintained a home near Atlanta since early this year and is known for his charity work.
