The Baltimore City Health Department can confirm that a patient is undergoing evaluation at Johns Hopkins Hospital with a chief complaint of fever after recently returning from West Africa.  The patient is currently being treated in an isolation room. The initial evaluation is suggestive of a diagnosis other than Ebola infection but further tests are ongoing. “The testing is being done out of an abundance of caution,” said Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore City Health Commissioner.  

Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore's new health commissioner, said the department has made significant improvements. In the last academic school year, the department increased its vision screening rate to 96 percent. But challenges remain with follow-through, Wen said. Less than 20 percent of students who screen positive for vision deficiencies end up getting glasses, she said. That leaves the health department and the school system trying to reach parents.

The world has heard about Freddie Gray. I want to tell you about another young man whose life ended too soon. He was my patient in the emergency room at a D.C. hospital. He was 19 years old and had been shot five times in the chest and abdomen. Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen writes an Op-Ed for the Washington Post.