EBOLA ATLANTA UPDATE: CDC Confirms First Ebola Case In The United States

By Staff Reporter | Oct 01, 2014 11:28 AM EDT

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On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said that a Dallas patient was confirmed to have the deadly EBOLA virus. US health specialists were examining how many people may have been exposed to the virus after the confirmation of the first ever EBOLA case in the United States.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services spokeswoman Carrie Williams, she stated that the patient's samples were tested by a state lab and confirmed Tuesday by a separate CDC EBOLA test. A Monday night-released statement by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said that the patient was being isolated based on symptoms and recent travel history.

On Tuesday afternoon, a press conference was held with information about the diagnosis. CDC Director Tom Frieden said that the patient did not manifest any EBOLA virus' indications when leaving from Liberia on September 19 or entering the US territory on September 20. On September 26, the patient pursued treatment and was admitted to a hospital September 28.

A hospital official said that in the patient's first hospital visit, he whined of illness but was released before returning on September 28 as his condition deteriorated. It wasn't until then that health specialists learned that the patient was in West Africa.    

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital's Doctor Edward Goodman would not remark on drugs that were used to treat the patient. He said that there isn't any more ZMapp available. ZMapp is a trial drug that was used on two previous EBOLA patients.

On Tuesday night, Assistant Chief Norman Seals of the Dallas Fire-Rescue said that the EBOLA patient was transported to the hospital by three staff members from Fire Station 37, and currently in reverse isolation at home. They've been asked to stay at home for 21 days and will be checked on daily and will have their temperature observed. The ambulance used is being quarantined. It was used 48 hours after the patient was transported to the hospice. Dallas Fire-Rescue is waiting on experts to guide it on how to correctly disinfect and decontaminate the ambulance.

Doctor Tom Frieden said that there was no threat to anyone on the plane because the man had no indications at the time of the trip. At the press conference, CDC authorities and health experts accentuated that they believe the patient's diagnosis will be constrained and that the risk for an EBOLA outbreak in Dallas is low. Mutually the hospital and health officials said austere federal isolation and testing guidelines are being followed.

From its Atlanta headquarters, the CDC has sent a team in Dallas. The team consists of mostly epidemiologists, will aid local and state health departments with tracing the disease to anyone who may have had contact with the patient. The team will also handle other parts of the investigation.

However, officials said that there are no other suspected cases in Texas. The City of Dallas has also opened its Emergency Operations Center in reply to the EBOLA diagnosis. The state's high readiness status is at level 2.  The office will help organize operations between the city, county, state and the CDC.

After they became sick, four American aid workers have been flown back to the US after having infected in West Africa. They were cared for in special isolation facilities at Atlanta and Nebraska hospitals. Three have already recovered. A US doctor exposed to the virus in Sierra Leone is under observation in a similar facility at the National Institutes of Health.

The US has only four such isolation units. When asked if the patient would be transferred to one of those specialty facilities, Dr. Frieden said there was no need and practically any hospital can provide the proper care and infection control. Dallas County Health Director Zach Thompson said that unlike Africa, Dallas County has the setup needed to deal with EBOLA.

US health officials have been preparing for the possibility that an individual traveler could unknowingly arrive with the infection since the months of summer. Health specialists have counseled hospitals on virus- spreading prevention within their facilities. People traveling in the outbreak zone are checked for malaise, but that does not assure that an infected person won't get through.  Since July 27, the CDC stated that 12 other US folks have been tested for EBOLA. Those tests came back negative.

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), the West African EBOLA outbreak has killed over 3,000 people. EBOLA is spread through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of a person, who is sick with the virus, objects that have been contaminated with the virus and infected animals.

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