Ebola In The US: First Ebola Case Reported In Texas. Read How

The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. has been confirmed in a man who recently traveled from Liberia to Dallas, sending chills through the community as leaders urged caution to prevent spreading the virus. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said Tuesday that the man left Liberia on Sept. 19, arrived the next day to visit relatives and started feeling ill four or five days later. Frieden said it was not clear how the man became infected. The unidentified man was critically ill and has been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital since Sunday, federal health officials said Tuesday. They would not reveal his nationality or age. Officials said there are no other suspected cases in Texas. “I have no doubt that we’ll stop this in its tracks in the U.S. But I also have no doubt that — as long as the outbreak continues in Africa — we need to be on our guard,” Frieden said, adding that it was possible someone who has had contact with the man could develop Ebola in the coming weeks. Federal, state and local medical teams are scrambling to locate individuals who were in close contact with the patient and may have been infected. The virus is spread through direct contact with body fluids, including blood, saliva, vomit and feces. “I have no doubt that we will control this importation of Ebola so that it does not spread widely in this country,” said Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “We will stop it here.” Henry Johnson heard the news while watching TV in the hospital’s emergency room with his wife, who was waiting to be treated for a headache. The Dallas resident said the crowded room watched closely and remained calm. But Johnson said he was worried about the people who were in the ER on Friday, as well as those who might have been exposed to Ebola after hospital staff let the patient leave. “They should have quarantined him then,” the 53-year-old chef said. “I hope they catch it before it really gets out.” Megan Castro, 27, of nearby Mesquite wasn’t aware of the Ebola patient when she arrived at the hospital with her stepson and saw news trucks parked outside. When she learned why they were there, she stopped short of the doors and scanned the building, wringing her hands as she weighed whether to go inside. “Have they cleaned the whole hospital?” she wondered aloud. The two debated whether to go to a different hospital. In the end, they decided to go in. But she said hospital officials should inform visitors and patients about what was being done to contain the disease. “The community has a right to know because there’s a lot of people who come in and out of this hospital,” said Castro, who works as a driver. Frieden said he didn’t believe anyone on the same flights as the patient was at risk. “Ebola doesn’t spread before someone gets sick and he didn’t get sick until four days after he got off the airplane,” Frieden said. Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Ft. Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC’s assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country. “We’ve been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings,” Gaye said at a community meeting Tuesday evening. Large get-togethers are a prominent part of Liberian culture. “We need to know who it is so that they (family members) can all go get tested,” Gaye said. “They should let us know.” The symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus. The disease is not contagious until symptoms begin, and it takes close contact with bodily fluids to spread. Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 6,500 people in West Africa, and more than 3,000 deaths have been linked to the disease, according to the World Health Organization. But even those tolls are probably underestimates, partially because there are not enough labs to test people for Ebola. Four American aid workers who became infected in West Africa have been flown back to the U.S. for treatment after they became sick. They were treated in special isolation facilities at hospitals in Atlanta and Nebraska. Three have recovered. A U.S. doctor exposed to the virus in Sierra Leone is under observation in a similar facility at the National Institutes of Health. The U.S. has only four such isolation units, but Frieden said there was no need to move the latest patient because virtually any hospital can provide the proper care and infection control. The hospital is discussing if experimental treatments would be appropriate, Frieden said.