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CDC confirms first Ebola case in the U.S.

Livewire

Livewire

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A patient was diagnosed with Ebola in the United State for the first time, CNBC reported, citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Until Tuesday, Ebola patients had only been treated in the U.S. after being diagnosed elsewhere.

The CDC said they would make a statement Tuesday afternoon.
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(CNN) -- A patient being treated at a Dallas, Texas, hospital is the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday.
Several other Americans were diagnosed in West Africa and then brought to the United States for treatment.
The CDC is expected to provide more details on the case in a press conference at 5:30 p.m.
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 of being much higher given difficulties in tracking and reporting the disease.
According to the CDC, Ebola causes viral hemorrhagic fever, which can affect multiple organ systems in the body and are often accompanied by bleeding. Early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat, each of which can be easily mistaken early on for other ailments like malaria, typhoid fever, meningitis or even the plague.
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Still developing/breaking story, so there's not a whole lot of details yet, but this is alarming. Ebola is one of the deadliest infectious diseases known to mankind and to have it diagnosed here in the West/ developed world is pretty shocking in and of itself, as it primarily affects sub-saharan, tropical regions in Africa.

Still probably too soon to extrapolate if/when it spreads to others, and just how many people could contract it, but the possibility is there, especially for the care workers involved. Although, the recent crisis in Africa fighting the virus has beefed up disease control efforts around the world, so that's promising in the event that the virus spreads.

Any thoughts?
 
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Cosmo's Factory

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Sucks that no one listened to Médecins Sans Frontières :/

Hopefully they'll keep him/her in isolation and get everything neatly quarantined.
 
Lotus the Cat

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I wouldn't be too worried. It's one case and it was contracted overseas. So long as quarantine is strictly followed I wouldn't expect an outbreak to occur. This is something the US medical system should be capable of handling.

It's important that they also determine persons the infected had contact with after arriving in the US and quarantine them or put them under observation as well.
 
Alfieri

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That person who was infected visited Texas from West Africa. I feel like it is always Africa that causes these horrible diseases to spread. We need to be more strict about immigration so that our respective countries can remain safe from diseases.
 
Livewire

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Alfieri said:
That person who was infected visited Texas from West Africa. I feel like it is always Africa that causes these horrible diseases to spread. We need to be more strict about immigration so that our respective countries can remain safe from diseases.
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The patient was visiting his family in Dallas; immigration has nothing to do with it, and assuming the immigrants are somehow all flea-bitten and disease carriers ready to infect good honest Americans is a talking point, nothing else. It's simply not true. But yes, we need to do a better job of containing and fighting the spread of disease at its source, which just happens to be Africa, because the climate and some cultural practices (such as the eating of bushmeat) there are conducive to the spread of the virus, nothing more.
 
Mark Kamill

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As long as its contained its fine. I think. If the disease was in an incubation period however, while he was in the terminal, then its an issue. But how the hell can a disease like Ebola spread in the states when hygiene is much better? Still doesn't make things better for Africa though, and if people only start becoming aware of things because now its hitting America, I will lose yet another inch of faith for humanity.
 
Phantom1

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There honestly isn't much to be worried about at all.

They have 21 people under a watch last I heard, that confirmed had contact with him. And he is under high quarantine. As long as it's kept under wraps, we're fine.

And let's face it, the US will have a much easier time containing this than a third world country. Our medical facilities alone...
 
Alfieri

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Livewire said:
The patient was visiting his family in Dallas; immigration has nothing to do with it, and assuming the immigrants are somehow all flea-bitten and disease carriers ready to infect good honest Americans is a talking point, nothing else. It's simply not true. But yes, we need to do a better job of containing and fighting the spread of disease at its source, which just happens to be Africa, because the climate and some cultural practices (such as the eating of bushmeat) there are conducive to the spread of the virus, nothing more.
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Im not saying that all immigrants are covered in diseases. I'm saying that Africa has many dangerous diseases lurking around so when people who visit Africa come back to their country, they should be tested just in case. Diseases spread without our knowing until it actually happens.
 

Oryx

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Alfieri said:
Im not saying that all immigrants are covered in diseases. I'm saying that Africa has many dangerous diseases lurking around so when people who visit Africa come back to their country, they should be tested just in case. Diseases spread without our knowing until it actually happens.
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He was screened for symptoms before he boarded the flight to the US. This is how they know that he didn't spread it to anyone on the plane; since he has no symptoms when he boarded, his illness was not yet at the stage where it could spread to anyone. Testing costs hundreds of dollars per person, when we already know that the person isn't contagious if they do have it and are heading to a place where it's very likely they will not spread it far, if at all, because of our hygiene and medical infrastructure.

And that hundreds of dollars is just testing for ebola - keep in mind that there are other diseases in Africa that mimic the ebola symptoms but can't be diagnosed with the test. So that means more tests. Probably thousands of dollars worth of tests, for every single person? Who's paying for this?
 
El Héroe Oscuro

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I find this story fascinating. Aren't federal officials trying to track down anyone who has gotten in contact with him to check them? I feel like that's going to be extremely difficult because as that was an international flight, who actually knows where those people could be by now and how many people those people have gotten in contact with.
 
pokecole

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Oryx said:
He was screened for symptoms before he boarded the flight to the US. This is how they know that he didn't spread it to anyone on the plane; since he has no symptoms when he boarded, his illness was not yet at the stage where it could spread to anyone. Testing costs hundreds of dollars per person, when we already know that the person isn't contagious if they do have it and are heading to a place where it's very likely they will not spread it far, if at all, because of our hygiene and medical infrastructure.

And that hundreds of dollars is just testing for ebola - keep in mind that there are other diseases in Africa that mimic the ebola symptoms but can't be diagnosed with the test. So that means more tests. Probably thousands of dollars worth of tests, for every single person? Who's paying for this?
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This is a very good point. It's sort of a risk vs. cost type situation, where the risk is very low and the cost would be high for definite prevention. You can't always take out every variable, you just have to deal with the possibility of some things. At any given moment we could get annihilated by an outer space phenomena, but that doesn't mean we should focus on preparing for something like that; especially when it is especially difficult to contain.
 

Corvus of the Black Night

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I'm not too concerned personally, it spreads via fluids only and not through the air. If it spreads to near where I live though I'll probably just work from home.

Cosmo's Factory said:
http://m.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29447877

Welp, hope the kids turn out ok. It sucks they aren't erring a little more on the side of caution with this
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I don't think they knew the dude had Ebola, the earliest symptoms can be written off as the flu. I do think it's weird that people are traveling to those countries just to visit though, there should be more restrictions in place, despite Ebola not being an airborne transfer virus.
 
obZen

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According to 7-online, there was an Ebola scare on a plane landing at Newark airport.
The patient displayed "flu-like symptoms," which is all you can tell with I guess we'll call it "pre-Ebola"
Hazmat suits and all that, the patient was removed, and after a two-hour delay, the remaining passengers were allowed to leave

Of course, people are screaming, "NYC is gonna be infected!" However, I see this as a scare and nothing more
What I fear is, that anyone with FLU-like symptoms is gonna cause unnecessary fear, when it's probably just the flu...
But I'll keep an eye on this story, since it may affect me personally (I live 20 minutes from the airport)
 

Logical Cabbage

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Ebola affects me a bit too; after all, I live in Houston, Texas. It's kinda scary but it's also frustrating how people from New York can be like 'we're all going to die' while the people near here are calm. But one thing is for sure; that guy is as good as dead. If they can't cure the people in Africa, how can they cure this man and the incoming cameraman?

But it's very suspicious how they let someone with Ebola get on an airplane and endanger the rest of the civilians. I'm just hoping it doesn't spread.
 
ShinyUmbreon189

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Yet Another Logical Nerd said:
Ebola affects me a bit too; after all, I live in Houston, Texas. It's kinda scary but it's also frustrating how people from New York can be like 'we're all going to die' while the people near here are calm. But one thing is for sure; that guy is as good as dead. If they can't cure the people in Africa, how can they cure this man and the incoming cameraman?
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I'm almost certain the government has or is on the urge of having the vaccines to cure Ebola but even if they had it they wouldn't tell us. Just like I'm sure they have a cure for cancer but they would rather keep it secret. They've kept too many secrets, the Ebola virus vaccines would be no different. I'm still surprised Obama sent 300 troops over there to fight the virus or whatever, still not sure what his plans are. Hopefully they have them in hazmat suits and the water and food comes from a trusted source, I would hate for some to come back infected. Because who knows where they're deployed in the US.

But I wouldn't be too worried about the one incident unless it starts spreading throughout the US. It's a virus that spreads like a sickness person to person, so I highly doubt it's going to spread since the patient is under strong surveillance and the doctors are most likely in hazmats making it extremely hard for someone to get infected.
The most plausible way I can see it spreading is if American troops that were deployed to Africa somehow get exposed to the virus and they get infected. But even then, we may catch onto it quick and react before it can be spreaded.
 
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Livewire

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One of the nurses from the case in Dallas has contracted the disease, so now we have the first case of transmission in the US as well. What makes it really bad is that there was a so-called "break of protocol" that resulted in the nurse becoming infected.
 

Archeopterix

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How ironic would it be if the pandemic gripped the USA after all those years of 'meanwhile in Africa' jokes.
 

Corvus of the Black Night

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That likely won't happen. It makes sense that one person could have gotten infected, especially considering what kind of person that was (someone treating a person infected). Most people in the US don't regularly engage in activities with many people which would spread Ebola before it can be transmitted, and by that point, most people wouldn't be interacting with someone like that anyways (do you kiss them when your SO has a cold?)

The reason why it is spreading so much in Africa is due to the lack of resources and their cultural approach to burials, which involves touching the body (which in the case of Ebola is very very contagious). Also important is that this is West Africa where the people are unaware of how it's transmitted, unlike Eastern Africa, who has had many cropping ups of Ebola but nowhere near as bad as the current outbreak. There are people now paying a lot of money so that they can give their passed loved ones a traditional burial, despite its serious dangers.
 
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