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First Ebola Case In US: 5 School Children In Contact With Victim •Liberia Says Victim Showed No Symptoms Before Travelling

Up to 12 people could be infected with Ebola including five school children, it was revealed on Wednesday, as health officials scramble to contain the deadly virus following the first diagnosis on States soil.

The family of the male sufferer, who recently arrived in Texas from Liberia, could be at risk,

ABC News reported on Wednesday. EMTs who transported the patient were also deemed at risk but had received the all-clear today.

The man, who arrived in Dallas on September 20, is said to be critically ill and has been kept in isolation since Sunday. The patient has not been identified but is believed to be married and have children. He is ‘awake, talking and asking for food’, doctors said on Wednesday.

However there are fears of the disease spreading because the man was in the United States for almost a week before being isolated.

The patient showed no symptoms of the disease while traveling but began to develop signs on September 24 and sought medical care two days later at Texas Presbyterian Hospital - where he was dismissed with antibiotics.

On September 28 he was rushed to hospital in an ambulance and placed in the isolation unit before Ebola was confirmed. It raises the frightening prospect that he was mixing freely with others for a full four days while showing symptoms of the virus, the time when Ebola is most contagious.

CDC ‘disease detectives’ are now going door-to-door to find out who may have come in contact with the man while he was contagious with Ebola.

Meanwhile, the Liberian government said on Wednesday that the man showed no signs of fever or symptoms of the virus when he left the country on September 19.

Information Minister Lewis Brown said the West African country had put in place “stringent screening measures” that were preventing Ebola from spreading via air travel and the checks are being regularly reviewed.

“What this incident demonstrates is the clear international dimension of this Ebola crisis. For months, the Liberian government has been stressing that this disease is not simply a Liberian or West African problem,” Brown said in a statement.

Ambulance 37 which transported him to the hospital has been cordoned off. There are concerns after it was used to move patients for two days after the Ebola patient but hospital officials have reassured citizens that it was properly sterilised.

The ambulance crew who transported the Ebola patient all tested negative for Ebola on Wednesday.

The man arrived in the U.S. on September 20 from the West African region, where the disease has been rapidly spreading since its outbreak last December.

There is believed to be no risk to anyone who traveled on the same flight from Liberia because he did not have any symptoms at the time. The virus is not

Health officials are investigating the misdiagnosis and why the patient’s isolation was delayed despite his symptoms and his travel history.

Community leaders are also assisting medical professionals in the hunt for those who need to be tested while trying to quell panic in the local Dallas community.

Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said at a community meeting on Tuesday: “We’ve been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings.

“We need to know who it is so that they (family members) can all go get tested. If they are aware, they should let us know.”

Alben Tarty, spokesman for the association, said he was keen to avoid a panic but that he wanted anyone infected to come forward. He said that the patient was a ‘family man’ who was married and was thought to have children.

Mr Tarty said: “It’s scary for them.”

The patient was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and isolated on September 28 according to Centers for Disease Control Director Tom Frieden.

The patient is reportedly not being treated with the experimental serum ZMapp - because there is none left.

Dr Frieden said there was no risk to anyone on the airplane because the patient had no symptoms at the time of the flight.

It is not clear how the patient became infected.

“From the information that we have now, it does not appear the individual was involved in the response to Ebola, but that’s something we’ll investigate more,’ he said on Tuesday.

The man’s name or nationality have not yet been released but it is understood that he was visiting relatives in the U.S.

Asked how many people the patient may have had close contact with, the CDC Director said: ‘I think a handful is the right characterization.’

The man is not believed to have gone to any other hospitals in the area.

President Obama is aware of the patient’s Ebola diagnosis and the public health investigation, the White House said.

Dr Frieden said he believed the case also marked the first time this strain of Ebola has been diagnosed outside of West Africa.

The unidentified patient is being kept in isolation and the hospital is following Centers for Disease Control recommendations to keep doctors, staff and patients safe.

Dr Edward Goodman, epidemiologist for Texas Health Presbyterian, said the hospital had a plan for handling Ebola should a suspected case emerge and was ‘well prepared’ to provide care.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told CBS DFW: ‘We have quarantined both [the ambulance crew that took the patient to the hospital] and the unit itself to make sure that nothing was there that can be spread.’

He added: “First and foremost, we gotta have our thoughts and prayers for this man, who is very sick and hopefully he’ll get well. But we’re gonna sure everybody else is safe at the same time.”

The patient’s symptoms and recent travel indicated a case of Ebola.

Specimens from the patient were tested by a state lab and confirmed by a separate test by the Centers for Disease Control, said Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The hospital is reviewing why the patient was initially sent home with antibiotics.

Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health & Human Services, said health officials in North Texas are well equipped to care for the patient.

“This is not Africa,” he told Dallas station WFAA. “We have a great infrastructure to deal with an outbreak.”

Twelve other people in the U.S. have been tested for Ebola since July 27, according to the CDC. All of those tests were negative.

Four US aid workers who became infected while volunteering in West Africa have been treated in special isolation facilities in hospitals in Atlanta and Nebraska.

A US doctor exposed to the virus in Sierra Leone is under observation in a similar facility at the National Institutes of Health.


Source: Nigerian Tribune
United States Of America 4330599459954774701

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