CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

Ebola Outbreak

Ebola Dallas HospitalA police car drives past the entrance to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. A patient in the hospital is showing signs of the Ebola virus and is being kept in strict isolation with test results pending, hospital officials said Monday. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

DALLAS — Federal health officials have confirmed that a patient being treated at a Dallas hospital has tested positive for Ebola.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden said Tuesday that officials “don’t believe there is any risk to anyone who was on the flight at that time.”

Frieden says the patient came to the U.S. from Liberia to visit family and arrived on Sept. 20. The patient sought care last Friday and has been hospitalized in isolation since the weekend.

State health officials say no other cases are suspected in Texas.

The patient is the first case of the disease to be diagnosed in the United States.

Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital say the unidentified patient is being kept in isolation and that the hospital is following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to keep doctors, staff and patients safe.

The hospital had announced a day earlier that the patient’s symptoms and recent travel indicated a case of Ebola, the virus that has killed more than 3,000 people across West Africa and infected a handful of Americans who have traveled to that region.

The CDC has said 12 other people in the U.S. have been tested for Ebola since July 27. Those tests came back negative.

EBOLA COVERAGE ON CCTV-AMERICA.COM

Four American aid workers who have become infected while volunteering in West Africa have been treated in special isolation facilities in hospitals in Atlanta and Nebraska, and 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 the CDC has insisted that any hospital can safely care for someone with Ebola.

According to the CDC, Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus.

Jason McDonald, spokesman for the CDC, said health officials use two primary guidelines when deciding whether to test a person for the virus.

“The first and foremost determinant is have they traveled to the region (of West Africa),” he said. The second is whether there’s been proximity to family, friends or others who’ve been exposed, he said.

U.S. health officials have been preparing since summer in case an individual traveler arrived here unknowingly infected, telling hospitals what infection-control steps to take to prevent the virus from spreading in health facilities. People boarding planes in the outbreak zone are checked for fever, but symptoms can begin up to 21 days after exposure. Ebola isn’t contagious until symptoms begin, and it takes close contact with bodily fluids to spread.

The White House say it is unlikely to have add additional statement to what CDC says.

Report compiled with information from The Associated Press.

What you need to know about Ebola

The World Health Organization recently announced that it was ethical to offer unproven medicines as potential treatment for Ebola, given the particular circumstances of the current outbreak. This followed the announcement Aug. 8 that it ranks as an international health emergency. Here’s everything you need to know about the disease, and whether it’s something to fear.

Data: World Health Organization

Where did Ebola come from?

Scientists first came upon the virus as a double-whammy in 1976, with two simulataneous outbreaks 825 kilometers (about 512 miles) apart: one in Zaire (what is now northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo), and one in what is now southern South Sudan. A total of 602 cases were confirmed, and 431 people died.

How did Ebola get its name?

The first known patient with the disease — the index patient — was Mabalo Lokela, headmaster of a school in Yambuku, DRC. Between August 12 and 22, 1976, he toured the country’s border with small group from Yambuku mission along the Ebola river. He came down with malaria-like symptoms, and was originally diagnosed with relapse of malaria on Aug. 26. But by Sept. 5, Lokela was profusely bleeding from all orifices and in critical condition. He died Sept. 8, less than two weeks after the original diagnosis.

How does Ebola spread?

When people come in direct contact with the blood, organs, or other fluids of an animal infected with Ebola — including when the animal is eaten — the disease passes to humans. The evidence strongly points to fruit bats as “the reservoir hosts for ebolaviruses,” of which there are five distinct species. (Only one, the Reston virus, is thought to be non-fatal to humans.) The World Health Organization notes infections have occurred in Africa by handling infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found sick or dead or in the rainforest.

Once the disease has jumped from animals to humans, infections spread between people by contact with bodily fluids or tissue. It’s not, however, airborne, like the flu. It can also happen by indirect contact with contaminated environments, like hospitals or burial ceremonies. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to seven weeks after they’ve recovered.

Why is Ebola so deadly?

Ebola’s high mortality rate — 50 percent to 90 percent — is one of the highest of any known infectious disease. Only a handful have a higher rate, like prion diseases (which include Mad Cow Disease) and meningitis.

Part of the reason it’s so deadly is because Ebola’s symptoms are similar to a variety of other diseases and infections. It starts just like the flu or a really bad cold: fever, feeling weak, muscle pain, a headache and sore throat. That’s followed by vomiting, diarrhea, a rash, and impaired kidney and liver functions. Then “the victim’s face may appear vacant and expressionless” as it gets into the brain. Finally, and because Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever, there’s profuse internal and external bleeding — all of which is similar to malaria, typhoid fever, plague, and meningitis. Ebola can only be definitivly diagnosed by a lab test — which can be difficult to do if there are no labs, and no access to health facilities with labs.

Plus, Ebola has an incubation period of up to 21 days, meaning someone could be infected for three weeks before they ever have a symptom.

But as internist Dr. Marc Siegel points out, there’s one thing that helps spread Ebola more than just about anything else: fear.

How many people has Ebola killed?

Since its discovery in 1976, Ebola has infected at least 4,235 people and killed 2,603 — of which nearly 40 percent died in the current outbreak.

What stops Ebola from spreading?

Quarantine. There is no specific treatment or cure for Ebola, and only isolation has been effective in stopping its spread. Poor infrastructure, inadequate medical supplies and unsanitary conditions can hasten Ebola’s reach.

What’s worse that Ebola?

That depends on your definition of “worse,” but other diseases have killed more people in more prolonged, painful ways. Here’s a list of five diseases scarier than Ebola, according to Mother Jones.

Should I be worried?

Generally, no. (Unless, of course, you live or work in one of the areas with a current outbreak.)

Ebola in Guinea is not the Next Big One, an incipient pandemic destined to circle the world, as some anxious observers might imagine. It’s a very grim and local misery, visited upon a small group of unfortunate West Africans, toward whom we should bow in sympathy and continue sending help. It’s not about our fears and dreads. It’s about them. — science writer David Quammen

Professor Melissa Leach of the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, England put Ebola in context during an interview with WHO. The Economist wrote about how “panic in rich countries could make things worse,” and The New York Times reports on why Ebola isn’t something to fear to the level Hollywood movies would have you believe.

What about the drug that was given to the two Americans who were infected with Ebola?

The experimental drug Zmapp was given to two Americans working in Africa who had become infected after working with Ebola patients, and they appear to be doing better. There are a handful of other experimental drugs in testing stages, and their use — or non-use — in humans has raised ethical concerns as to whether unapproved drugs should be allowed to be given out if patients want them. The BBC reported on how Nigeria became an example of how controversial a clinical trial can become.