U.S. medical authorities have diagnosed the country’s first case of Ebola.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Tom Frieden, confirmed Tuesday that the potentially deadly virus was found in a male patient who was infected in Liberia. He started showing symptoms days after he arrived in Dallas, Texas on September 20.
Frieden said the unidentified patient was hospitalized last Sunday at Texas Heath Presbyterian Hospital, and is now in strict isolation. Officials are trying to determine who may have come in contact with him.
That would most likely be friends and family members. Officials say no one who flew to the United States on the same plane with the patient is in any danger.
The CDC chief said there is no doubt authorities will contain the virus, so that it will not widely spread in the U.S.
Although American health workers who were diagnosed in Africa were flown back to the U.S. for treatment, the Texas man is the first patient to be diagnosed inside the United States.
Ebola has killed nearly 3,100 people and infected more than 6,500 in West Africa. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are the most affected countries.
The virus causes uncontrollable bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea. It is spread by direct contact with the body fluids of infected patients.
There is no specific treatment, but an American doctor diagnosed with the virus was found to be Ebola-free after taking an experimental drug last month.
President Barack Obama has called Ebola a national security priority for the United States. He has called on the rest of the world to also regard it as a threat.
The Pentagon said Tuesday it is sending 700 U.S. soldiers to Liberia to help that country handle the outbreak. Seven hundred Army engineers also will help build treatment centers. No U.S. military personnel will provide direct care to Ebola patients.
Elsewhere in West Africa, the CDC said Tuesday it looks like the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria has been contained. Officials said there have been no new cases since August 31, and the 21-day monitoring period of those who came in contact with those infected ends Thursday. There were 19 confirmed Ebola cases in Nigeria.
The CDC also says Senegal avoided an Ebola epidemic when authorities there isolated that country’s only Ebola case in August.
Twelve other people in the U.S. have been tested for Ebola since July 27. The CDC said all those tests came back negative.
The White House says President Barack Obama discussed the CDC’s stringent isolation procedures with Frieden, who noted that the CDC was prepared for an Ebola case in the U.S.
The data health officials have seen in the past few decades since Ebola was discovered indicate that it is not spread through casual contact or through the air. Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person or exposure to objects such as needles that have been contaminated.
The illness has an average 8-10 day incubation period (although it ranges from 2 to 21 days); CDC recommends monitoring exposed people for symptoms a complete 21 days. People are not contagious after exposure unless they develop symptoms.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters.
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