First Ebola Case in US Diagnosed
Health officials emphasize no cause for panic.
A man traveling from Liberia in West Africa to Dallas, Texas has been diagnosed with Ebola, becoming the first patient to present with the disease on US soil.
CDC and local Texas health officials emphasized in a news conference today that they anticipate that the disease will be readily contained.
The first Ebola case has been diagnosed in the United States, but a top health official said today there is “no doubt… we will stop it here.”
Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the patient left Liberia on Sept 10 and arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20. The patient sought medical help on Sept. 27 and was put in isolation on Sept. 28, Frieden said.
Tests confirming the Ebola diagnosis came back today. The White House said President Obama was briefed about the patient by Frieden.
Frieden stressed that the patient was not sick on departure from Liberia or upon arrival in the U.S. and the disease can only be contracted by someone exhibiting symptoms of the disease.
Frieden said he was confident there would not be an Ebola outbreak in the U.S.
“There is no doubt in my mind we will stop it here,” he said.
While it is right to be concerned, it’s important to remember that Ebola is a “bloodborne pathogen,” and is not spread through the air. Solid infection prevention protocols should contain the illness.
Officials on Tuesday said they are confident that standard procedures for controlling an infection can contain Ebola in the United States. The C.D.C. is sending experts to Texas to trace anyone who may have come in contact with the patient while he was sick with symptoms.
Doctors across the country are being reminded to ask for the travel history of anybody who comes in with a fever. Patients who have been to West Africa are being screened and tested if there seems to be a chance they have been exposed.
It helps that Ebola does not spread nearly as easily as Hollywood movies about contagious diseases might suggest. In 2008, a patient who had contracted Marburg – a virus much like Ebola – in Uganda was treated at a hospital in the United States and could have exposed more than 200 people to the disease before anyone would have known what she had. Yet no one became sick.
It looks like President Obama is being briefed on this subject, but for some this offers little comfort, considering how many briefings he has recently chosen to ignore.
WH: President just briefed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention & Director Dr. Tom Friedan about case of #Ebola in #Dallas
— Ed Henry (@edhenryTV) September 30, 2014
CDC officials have refused to say if the infected patient is an American citizen, raising concerns from many who are making a connection between the situation in Dallas and the President’s recent lack of leadership on counterterrorism and border security.
When directly asked if the patient is an American citizen, Frieden would only say, “He is visiting family who live in this country. Do we have any other questions in the room?
I wish I had bought stock in a local biotech firm, which was a nine-person research operation until this outbreak occurred.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said today it would provide its expertise and as much as $42.3 million to help San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical accelerate development and testing of ZMapp, the biotech’s experimental Ebola drug.
With just nine employees, Mapp Bio lacks the resources to respond to the Ebola crisis unfolding in Western Africa, co-founder and CEO Kevin Whaley said at an event last week in San Diego. The biotech, founded in 2003 to address the public health needs of mothers and children in developing countries, was looking for government help, Whaley said.
In a statement today, the federal health agency said it would provide $24.9 million to Mapp Bio through an initial, 18-month contract. The company will make a small amount of ZMapp for early stage clinical safety studies and for non-clinical animal studies needed to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness.
The effort is intended to advance ZMapp toward FDA approval, and includes subject-matter expertise and technical support to accelerate drug manufacturing and to address regulatory and other non-clinical concerns. The health agency’s assistant secretary for preparedness and response can extend the contract up to a total of $42.3 million.
And as we officially enter the month of Halloween tomorrow, the CDC has just published timely guidelines for funeral directors to address Ebola-laden remains.
The three-page list of recommendations include instructing funeral workers to wear protective equipment when dealing with the remains since Ebola can be transmitted in postmortem care. It also instructs to avoid autopsies and embalming.
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Comments
“The patient sought medical help on Sept. 27 and was put in isolation on Sept. 28, Frieden said.”
You don’t seek medical help if you don’t have symptoms… had to have been exhibiting symptoms prior to 9/27 – at least a day or two. Who did he infect from 9/25 – 9/27? Who did he infect between seeking help and being isolated?
“He is visiting family who live in this country.”
Was he visiting them from 9/25 – 9/27? Have they been checked out? Isolated? Who will they be in contact with for the next two weeks?
“There is no doubt in my mind we will stop it here.”
Excuse me while a laugh in your face.
According to the White House: It’s not really Ebola. It’s just workplace violence.
This doesn’t gibe with info in the comments below. Are they still lying to us?
The CDC has assured us that this is merely a case of workplace virus.
CEDA sucks!
Check out Green Flu for more.
“No case for panic”. Sure, panic is no help, but is it a case for quarantine? As in do not allow any individuals from Liberia into this country for the time being. And while we are at it, secure the southern border to prevent disease transmission there.
“There is no doubt in my mind we will stop it here,” he said. Oh, well that settles it. We don’t have to worry about next week, or next month now. They have stopped it. Whew!
Nothing to worry our little heads about. We just can’t comprehend the brilliance of the CDC. Right.
This virus is Obama’s dream. Just wait until our military guinea pigs start getting infected. Just wait until we have a dozen, then a hundred Americans back here with the virus. Wait until we have internal travel restrictions and you need a doctor’s approval to go about?
This is already out of control, as far as I’m concerned. The response to this threat is purely political and is opening us to great risk. No need to panic? If real physicians and adults were in charge, I’d agree. But I say, run the red flag up the pole right now.
I am worried about those military people being sent to Liberia. They will be at high risk; plus, some health workers were recently murdered because of superstition and suspicion.
If Lagos, Nigeria, could contain an outbreak, I have confidence that Dallas, Texas, can. But the question of whether to embargo travelers from the three infected countries is a good one.
“Texas troops among thousands to be sent to fight Ebola”
http://fcnews.tv/1rM1hdc
Well of course.
/corpse-men
/latte salute
/my unimpressed face
Yeah, Obama should be as proactive as Reagan was with AIDS. Refresh my memory. How many died of AIDS in this country ? Even if you don’t count gays and drug users, thousands of the kind of real americans you like, died. Now, how many have died of Ebola in this country?
I could point out that his initial treatment was in a Texas hospital and they sent him home. Nah, that would be a cheap shot. Only cheat shots at the expense of Obama are expressed on this site.
Wow. You are a real piece of work, aren’t you?
I was just trying to anticipate a comment to the effect that people with AIDS deserved it. Did I misjudge the local commentariat?
I can’t speak for any of the other commenters here; I speak only for myself. But I do worry that you seem to have a lot of really ugly thoughts bubbling away in your head. That can’t be a very pleasant or fulfilling state of affairs.
RE: I could point out that his initial treatment…
But you did point it out while denying that was what you were doing. Was that due to a short attention span condition or are you just swarmy?
RE: Even if you don’t count gays and drug users…
Not many once limits were placed on blood donations from gays and drug users. In this country, AIDS was mainly pandemic among the two groups you listed.
Come to think of it, there was a program in Arkansas prisons while Bill Clinton was governor in which inmates were paid for blood. They took the blood and mixed it all together to form clotting agents. This effectively wiped out the hemophilia population in Canada.
They wrote an article about you in Psychology Today not too long ago.
🙂
Why did you waste your energy to say absolutely nothing?
I apologize for my churlish response but I do like a good argument and Sir or Madam Deodorant has left him or her self open for a more pointed reposte.
According to a report I read, the Liberian flew here 9/20 – 9/21, sought medical help on 9/24, was not hospitalized, returned to the hospital 9/26 and was hospitalized at that time.
I’ve read that the Ebola virus has a 10-day incubation period and symptoms appear as early as 7 days.
I believe this man knew he had been exposed and suddenly decided to visit “family” (?) here in the U.S. just in time for his symptoms to manifest so he could get free U.S. health care and damn the rest of the world, including the people at the airports, on the plane, and whomever he came in contact with after he arrived in the U.S..
How many more will do the same thing? How many illegals have brought in the TB and serious viruses we’re suddenly seeing?
Now that’s an interesting and reasonable supposition. He might have been aware of some exposure, and out of concern for the potential of actually having contracted the disease, he comes to the U.S.
Wonder when he made his plane reservation…
This is purely speculative, but it makes sense. I wasn’t too worried before, now I am. The one thing I am still wondering about is what happened when he went to the hospital the first time and was released.
I don’t know if your speculation is correct, but that is basically what happened with the american who was trying to come home and ended up starting the outbreak in Nigeria.
It’s a 21-day incubation period.
No that’s the time period for quarantine. The incubation period is from as little as 2 days up to as much as 21 days. Symptoms are usually seen starting from 7 to 10 days after infection.
So, if he knew he had been infected, started his flight on 9/20, started his symptoms on the 24th, that would put him getting infected around the 15th.
Did he have a passport already? If not, how long does it take to get a passport in Liberia? Or do we just let them fly into the U.S. without a passport because ….. well, because they’re from Liberia? Or is he a diplomat? Since when does the average Liberian citizen have the jack to buy a plane ride to the U.S.?
Is anyone investigating whether he really does have family in Texas? Texas? If he really does, did he actually SEE them and expose them to the disease? If he didn’t stay with this alleged “family”, what about exposing the hotel staff where he presumably would have stayed? How about cab or bus drivers and passengers, restaurant staff, let alone the hospital staff he came in close contact with? Is it just, “Oh well, if they get sick, too bad”? And Obamullah has sent at least 3k of our young men and women over there. They’re staging in Monrovia, which is where this man flew from.
It would be interesting to track his whereabouts and travels during his first few days in the U.S. AND examine his cell phone records.
Why aren’t DHS and HHS using their bloated budgets to investigate this guy down to his panties and shoelaces?
How many more Ebola-infected people will our government expose us to? How many more will just fly into the U.S. for treatment, potentially infecting everyone in their paths?
According to the latest, he was staying in an apartment in Dallas. He exposed school aged children, who are supposedly staying home.
Information coming out now is that the patient’s name is Thomas Duncan, resident of Ghana. Ghana is a non-landlocked country of West Africa and is situated very close to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia.
Duncan is black and in his early forties.
“Did he have a passport already?”
I guess you don’t know.
“If not, how long does it take to get a passport in Liberia? Or do we just let them fly into the U.S. without a passport because ….. well, because they’re from Liberia?”
I doubt he got his passport after he thought he became infected. Liberia doesn’t have the most efficient bureaucracy. Yes, he would need a passport AND a VISA.
Wow, paranoid and ignorant. If you own guns, you have the trifeca.
“Or is he a diplomat? Since when does the average Liberian citizen have the jack to buy a plane ride to the U.S.?”
Diplomat? Where did that come from? If he had a diplomatic passport, wouldn’t that contradict you last argument?
He obviously had the ‘jack’ to afford a plain ticket or do you think some liberal bought it for him to infect the state of Texas. Wow, that is a great plan. I will bring it up at my next meeting of the liberal conspiracy. We can put a couple in every red state. But why send them to the hospital? They could do more damage if they don’t get treatment.
He’s from Ghana, not Liberia.
If you prefer to think it’s all a big coincidence, then continue your delusional libtard thinking ….. quietly. Your thoughts don’t matter. Call one of your pet government functionaries and tell them instead of us.
@JackRussellTerrierist Yes it is rude of me to disrupt the inbred nature of this site.
Wow, this is off the wall speculation even by your standards. Do you get treatment for your paranoia?
His temperature was normal and he had no symtoms when he arrived in this country. So I doubt he knew he had the disease. Despite your speculation, you actually have no idea about why he came here.
If he really wanted free care and he knew he was sick, he would have been better served by going to England. They treat everyone for free. FREE!!!!!
BTW, TB is not a virus.
I didn’t say TB was a virus. Here’s the sentence I wrote in regard to TB: “How many illegals have brought in the TB and serious viruses we’re suddenly seeing?”
You need a remedial reading course.
Duncan felt ill on the 24th. The hospital missed it. He started his flight on the 20th. Symptoms can appear in as little as 7 days or as much as 21 days after infection, but usually 7-10 days. So he got infected as early as the 3rd or as late as the 17th. If you don’t think he knew he’d been exposed, perhaps multiple exposures say from someone he’d been intimate with who fell ill, I’ve got a lovely bridge for sale.
Maybe he has no ties to the UK and could only get a quick visa to get to the “come one, come all” U.S.. The U.S. embassy site for travel from Ghana to the U.S. is processed in two days: “Processing Times
There is no same day delivery of visas. Most visas are available in two (2) business days, but occasionally additional time for processing may be required due to special circumstances, incomplete applications, or administrative processing. As such, please schedule your appointment as soon as your travel plans are made and as far in advance as possible. Processing Time Disclaimer: The above processing times are averages. Please note that the timing can vary based on the individual circumstances of each case.” http://ghana.usembassy.gov/non-immigrant_visas.html
It is stated elsewhere on the site that emergency visas for humanitarian/family issues are processed faster.
Get a clue.
I will give you ‘TB and serious viruses’, although the construction is ambiguous. Perhaps you need a remedial writing class.
But you did speculate about whether he needed a passport. Nice to see you went to the trouble to learn something.
I didn’t bother to check all your math, but your hypothesis is heavy on speculation. Your conclusion might be possible, but it is highly improbable.
It may even be that we need to quarrantine people coming from some countries. But before we jump to that conclusion, perhaps we need a little more experience. I understand that that could lead to closing the barn door after the horse is gone. But quarrantine is a serious and expensive solution. As you point out there are other serious contagious diseases. We used to routinely quarrantine people. But that doesn’t fit with the pace of modern life.
With reference to the passport and other issues I raised, those were rhetorical questions. Look that up and study it so that in the future you might recognize them.
It’s confirmed now that Duncan has a sister living in TX, so he probably already had a passport. He can get a travel visa from Ghana, his home country according to his Facebook page, in two days. He was living and working in Monrovia for a FedEx freight receiving company, but quit on 9/4. One can get an emergency travel visa in Liberia, too, in a day. His sister visited him about a month before he flew into the U.S..
He knew he was infected before he traveled, as I suggested, and got infected on the exact date I suggested.
Here, practice your reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-victim-texas-thomas-eric-duncan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0
Yo, Dipstick, it’s confirmed Duncan knew he’d been exposed on the 15th, which makes my guess dead-on accurate as well as my suspicions. Here’s the sentence from my post today at 1:20pm: “So, if he knew he had been infected, started his flight on 9/20, started his symptoms on the 24th, that would put him getting infected around the 15th.”
Everyone else subjected to the same exposure are dead or dying. Here it is. Choke on it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-victim-texas-thomas-eric-duncan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0
I’ve read reports similar to Jack’s version – he showed symptoms on the 22nd, sought help on 24th but sent home, came back and was hospitalized on the 26th.
Conservative estimates of being infectious are when symptoms appear. So that means he was contagious and in public for 4 days. Although I assume(?) he spent most of that time sick in bed.
Other news reports are mangling the timeline. Not sure if thats good or bad. At least it means they are not coordinating a narrative?
Commenters over on AceofSpades note that CDC spokesman avoided directly answering whether the subject is a US citizen. Which may mean he’s a foreigner.
Of course, that meant his family members were exposed, and then they’ve been out and about, so how many other people have they been in contact with?
How many nursery school or public school age children are involved in the household? Which schools attended? Where have the household adults gone, etc will all have to be run down by the Dallas county and Texas health departments. I also find it disturbing that the patient either did not tell the hospital that he was very recently in country from Liberia or they didn’t ask when he went to the ER. And who did he expose in the ER? All of this is much more complicated than running down a meningitis outbreak.
….IF he really does have family here and IF he saw them at all.
Is there any reason on God’s green earth to assume that any statement by any Apparatchnik of the US government is ever true, except accidentally? Is there any reason to assume that the CDC has the slightest concept of the reality of the situation? Is there any reason to assume that they would or could do the right thing in this situation if they knew what it was?
The failure to restrict travel from infected areas, and to erase our southern border, is so outrageous as to be beyond being accidental. It is a deliberate feature and not a bug of US government policy.
Which says something about the real relationship between the US government and the American people.
Actually the CDC does an excellent job. But if you really want to worry about something, worry about the fact that you are more likely to get an untreatable infection in the hospital than out of one.
While you are worrying, why don’t you worry about the misuse of antibiotics in farming and treatment. The result is the evolution of pathogens that are immune to the antibiotics we have.
Then you can worry about the fact that there is more profit in other pharmaceuticals. So the drug companies aren’t working on new ones. I know. We will need to rely on the government. Perish the thought!
You’re right that the CDC can’t be trusted. One of their own whistle blowers recently admitted committing medical fraud in covering up MMR vaccine injury of black boys. If Obama had a son, he might have neurological damage.
But don’t let me get us off topic. I think we’re currently trolling around cattle getting AIDS from Reagan, or some national security failure like that.
They assure us he was not showing symptoms on the plane, so was not contagious. But since he went to the hospital just four days later, that seems like a rather fine line of assumption.
The quote above says he left on the 10th, but that should be the 19th. I just read the incubation period is between 2 and 21 days, usually 4-6. And that they can be contagious without showing symptoms.
Ebola is more contagious at the later stages, but if this guy infected a couple friends on the 21st, they were probably mildly contagious for three days, before it was determined to be Ebola and he was admitted on the 28th.
Controlling hysteria is indeed important, but when government becomes known as incompetent, or known to routinely lie to us, people become even more hysterical.
The flight staff isn’t going to notice a slight coughing from a particular single passenger or some sweating. yes, if he was starting to bleed, they’d probably notice, but the symptoms start as a cough and fever.
Flight attendants are not exactly rocket scientists or keen observers for disease, although some may take their job seriously enough to watch for suspicious behavior as trained, but it has to be something pretty overt and doesn’t relate to disease. Hell, if the hospital staff didn’t suspect it the first time he was in there, why is it necessarily true that he didn’t show pronounced enough symptoms on the flight to be noticed? Because the flight attendants said so?
We don’t know if he showed symptoms on the flight or not, and neither do the flight staff.
1. Marburg is not Ebola. It is particularly not this strain of Ebola, which may have mutated, as RNA viruses are prone to do.
2. Calling it a ‘bloodborne pathogen’ is misleading, as it spreads through all body fluids (vomit, diarrhea, sweat, sneezing, etc), not just blood.
We need to stop this thing in its tracks, which means quarantine and for heavens sakes not inviting people from Liberia to come hang out here without it. Also this guy was wondering around infected for days. We have no idea if anyone else will get sick. If too many people get sick, we will reach a tipping point where it can’t be stopped until it burns itself out. We need to stop it NOW.
I don’t want people telling me everything is going to be fine, I want people who sound like they are serious about the whole thing. Somebody the other day said they would be less worried if all the officials didn’t sound like the bureaucrats at the beginning of a zombie movie.
E1 has a name, Thomas Eric Duncan. He lives in Liberia and was here visiting his sister. I am wondering how this cat got out of the bag.
I believe he lives in Accra, Ghana, not Liberia. He flew from Monrovia, Liberia, though.
Monrovia is where our military are staging to help with supplies and the building of hospitals for Ebola patients.
You seem to have hit the nail on the head, from the get go.