CDC confirms first case of Ebola virus in United States

A patient being treated at a Dallas hospital is the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, health officials announced Tuesday.

The unidentified man left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At that time, the individual did not have symptoms. “But four or five days later,” he began to exhibit them, Frieden said. The individual was hospitalized and isolated Sunday at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

He also declined to say, clearly, whether the patient is a man, although he referred to the person as “he” on multiple occasions.

A number of other Americans have been diagnosed with the disease in West Africa and then brought to the United States for treatment.

The Ebola outbreak has been centered in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, though there have been concerns about international air travel and other factors,  including the fact the symptoms might not appear until two to 21 days after one is infected may contribute to its spread.

More than 3,000 people in West Africa have died after being infected with Ebola, according to a World Health Organization report from last week. The same report stated that there had been 6,553 cases of the virus overall, though the number is suspected to be much higher, given difficulties in tracking and reporting the disease.

The reason Ebola isn’t being stopped

“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,” said Frieden.