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Ebola virus: First case of killer disease confirmed in United States

Health & Science

Texas, USA: America was placed on a high alert last night after the first case of deadly Ebola was diagnosed in the country, sparking a desperate race to find all those who had had contact with the victim.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a patient had tested positive for the deadly virus and was currently in intensive care after being taken ill in Dallas, Texas.

They added the victim had recently arrived in the Lone Star State from Liberia to visit family but said he had not been employed in helping fight Ebola in West Africa.

The patient landed in the US showing no signs of the disease on September 20 after leaving Liberia the day before.

He is said to have come in contact with family and a “few members of the community” who health workers were now trying to locate.

Four days after his arrival the victim, who has not been identified, began feeling unwell.

Last Friday he sought medical attention suffering a fever before being admitted to hospital on Sunday.

CDC director Dr Tom Frieden said it was the first case of the disease to be diagnosed outside of Africa. He said he was confident there would not be an Ebola outbreak in America.

"There is no doubt in my mind we will stop it here," he said. “We will control this importation, or this case of Ebola, so that it does not spread widely in this country.”

Dr Frieden moved to allay fears the victim may have spread the disease while flying to the US on a commercial flight.

“You have to remember with Ebola until the disease manifests properly, it is very difficult to spread,” he said.

“There is zero risk of transmission on the flight.”

He refused to give details of the plane or confirm the man’s nationality.

However as Dr Frieden would only say the patient was visiting family “who live in this country,” it lead many to believe the man is not an American. He said no other cases of Ebola were suspected in Texas.

A team of CDC specialists were last night en route to Dallas to help local health officials.

America’s National Institutes of Health recently admitted another American doctor exposed to the virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone, who has not been named

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

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

The World Health Organisation (WHO) say more than 3,000 people have died of Ebola in West Africa. It is the world's most deadly outbreak of the virus.

Medics however said she is too weak to travel at the moment but she added she would gladly return if she was well enough.

Dr Sacra was not treating Ebola patients but pregnant women when he contracted the disease. N He is now recovering.

In his first TV interview since his release from the Emory hospital in Atlanta Dr Brantly recounted the moment he was told he could be dying.

“I said to the nurse who was taking care of me, ‘I’m sick. I have no reserve. And I don’t know how long I can keep this up,” he said.

“I thought, I’m not gonna be able to continue breathing this way. And they had no way to breathe for me if I had to quit breathing,”

He first started feeling symptoms at the end of July,  when he came down with a low fever that made him feel “a little off - a little warm, a little under the weather”.

Initially, he hoped it was malaria or dengue fever, but the results kept coming back negative until he was eventually tested for Ebola.

The positive test means death for more than 90 per cent who catch the disease, but Dr Brantly says he never lost faith even when doctors started to fear he wouldn't make it through the night.

 

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