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Ebola Confirmed Inside U.S. Hospital Reports Patient In ‘Strict Isolation’
WND
The Centers for Disease Control have confirmed a person in Dallas, Texas, has contracted the Ebola virus – and the individual had been in the country for eight days before being hospitalized.
Officials say the first case of Ebola in the United States, not brought for special treatment, has been identified and the patient is in “strict isolation” at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Doctors refused to answer questions about whether the patient is a U.S. citizen, saying only that “he’s visiting family who live in this country.”
“We got the result back at 1:22 p.m. CT this afternoon that the patient has Ebola, and we want to emphasize at this point, we have no other information any other person is affected,” said Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner Dr. David Lakey. “We are working diligently to make sure Texas is safe.”
On Sept. 20, the patient arrived in the U.S. on a flight from Liberia, officials with the CDC reported.
In a press conference Tuesday, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said, “He began developing symptoms several days after arriving in the United States and was hospitalized. Today we determined the patient has Ebola.”
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are the focus of the unprecedented outbreak, which has already taken 2,800 lives and could kill as many as 1.4 million by the end of January, according to the CDC. WND has reported on the danger of spreading Ebola by international air travel, given that Ebola symptoms can take up to 21 days to manifest after a person has been infected.
The patient reportedly showed no symptoms while traveling, which, the CDC said, meant “zero risk” of infecting other passengers on the same flight. The government agency refused to identify the patient’s flight number, and physicians said only a “handful” of people in the U.S. had been in contact with the infected person prior to symptoms becoming evident.
“Ultimately, we are all connected by the air we breathe,” Frieden said, raising concern Ebola could become an airborne virus. “And we are invested in ensuring the disease is controlled in Africa and also that wherever there are patients in this country who become ill, they are immediately isolated and we do the tried-and-true core public health intervention that is required to stop the spread of Ebola.”
“Ebola is not an airborne infection,” said Dr. Edward Goodman, hospital epidemiologist at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, noting that he wanted to immediately correct any false impressions that might be derived from Dr. Frieden’s opening comments.
Reposted with permission
