UPDATE: U.S Diagnose First Ebola Case

Medic-ALL (01:10:2014) 

The United States yesterday confirmed its first case of the deadly Ebola virus, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. This marked the first appearance of the disease which has ravaged parts of the African continent over the last few months in the country.

Officials of the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, United States had earlier said in a statement on Monday, the 29th of September , that an unnamed patient was being tested for Ebola and had been placed in "strict isolation" due to presenting symptoms and recent travel history.

In a news conference on Tuesday by the Director of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Thomas Freiden , the body stressed it's confidence to control the situation and keep the virus from spreading in the United States.

It has been revealed that the infected man left Liberia on September 19 and arrived the U.S the next day to visit family members. Health officials are working to identify anyone who may have been exposed to the patient. A handful of people may in the coming days be monitored to see if symptoms of the deadly virus emerge, according to the Director.

Until now, the only known cases of Ebola in the U.S. involved American doctors and aid workers who were infected and returned to the country for treatment. One of them, Richard Sacra, was discharged last weekfrom a Nebraska hospital. Days later, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesdaadmitted an American physician who was exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone. There were reports of possible Ebola patients in New York, California, New Mexico and Miami, but all of them tested negative for the virus.

The unidentified person with Ebola is being treated in intensive care at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, according to Edward Goodman, the hospital's epidemiologist.

People who traveled on the same plane as this man are not in danger because he had his temperature checked before the flight and was not symptomatic at the time, Frieden said. Ebola is only contagious if the person has symptoms, and can be spread through bodily fluids or infected animals but not through the air.

"There is zero risk of transmission on the flight," Frieden said.

Medic-ALL.Inc 2014

Ref: washingtonpost