The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States on Tuesday. Officials said that the unidentified patient has been in isolated care at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas since Sunday.
Although there have been patients diagnosed in Africa who have been flown to the U.S. for treatment, this is the first case that has been diagnosed on American soil. It is also believed that this is the first case of this strain of ebola being diagnosed outside of West Africa
CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said the patient was recently traveling in Liberia before returning to the U.S. on September 20th. The patient visited family upon arrival before beginning to feel sick four or five days later. It was unclear how the person became infected.
Health officials have begun tracking down family and friends who might have come in contact with the virus. However, there are no other suspected cases in Texas at this time.
Frieden said there is no risk to anyone who was traveling on the airplane with the patient because the symptoms did not appear until a few days later. The virus can only be spread through direct contact with bodily fluids and is not airborne. It is not contagious until there are symptoms. Ebola symptoms include fever, vomiting, muscle aches, and bleeding and can appear up to 21 days after exposure to the virus.
“The bottom line here is that I have no doubt we will control this importation, or this case of Ebola, so that it does not spread widely in this country,” Frieden told a news conference. “It is certainly possible that someone who had contact with this individual, a family member or other individual, could develop Ebola in the coming weeks,” he added. “But there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here.”
People boarding planes in the ebola outbreak zone are checked for fever prior to boarding, but this is no guarantee that an infected person won’t get through considering how long it can take for symptoms to appear. Liberia is one of the three hardest hit countries along with Guinea and Sierra Leone. The epidemic has killed over 3,000 people and there have been at least 6,500 confirmed cases.
U.S. health officials have been preparing for the possibility of an unknowingly infected passenger arriving since the summer. Health authorities have instructed hospitals on how to prevent the spread of the virus within their facilities.
Experts consider this to be the deadliest outbreak of ebola in history. Global health experts have recently warned that the virus is becoming more aggressive and urged world leaders to step up their response. The head of Doctors Without Borders told the UN last week that ebola “is winning.” The CDC also predicted that between 550,000 and 1.4 million people could be infected with the ebola virus by January.
[Source: Miami Herald]