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First Ebola case diagnosed in US
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The CDC today confirmed that a man in Texas who recently returned from West Africa was diagnosed in the United States with Ebola virus.
The unidentified patient left Liberia on Sept. 19 and returned to the US the next day. He developed symptoms 4 to 5 days later and presented to a Dallas hospital on Sept. 28. Texas health officials sent samples from the patient to the CDC in Atlanta, where it was confirmed through PCR analysis that the patient was infected with the disease. The patient has been placed in isolation, and health authorities have identified and will monitor everyone who might have come into contact with the patient while he was infectious, according to CDC director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH.
Thomas Frieden
“The bottom line is that I have no doubt that we will control this importation of Ebola so that it does not spread widely in this country,” Frieden said during a media briefing. “It is possible that someone who had contact with this individual — a family member or other individual — could develop Ebola in the coming weeks, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here.”
According David Lakey, MD, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, there are currently no other suspected cases in the state.
The exact source of the first US case is unknown, according to the CDC. Ebola is spread by direct contact with an individual who is showing symptoms and through body fluids.
The Ebola outbreak was first reported in rural Guinea in March, but has since spread rapidly to other countries, including Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal. According to the CDC, there have been a total of 6,574 cases and 3,091 deaths.
Several Americans have become infected with Ebola, including two missionaries, Kent Brantly, MD, and Nancy Writebol, who were returned to the United States from Liberia to receive care at Emory University Hospital. However, this is the first time an Ebola diagnosis was made inside the US.