First Ebola Case Diagnosed in US Is 'Critically Ill'

The first case of deadly Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. has been confirmed in Dallas, in a man who was traveling in Liberia and arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today.

The man is being kept in isolation. He had no symptoms when he left Liberia, then began to show signs of the disease on Sept. 24, the CDC said today. He sought medical care on Sept. 26, was hospitalized two days later and is now critically ill, said Thomas Frieden, the director of the CDC.

Frieden said the agency was working to identify anybody who had contact with the man and tracking them down. “There is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here,” he said at a press conference in Atlanta.

The CDC has a team of epidemiologists on the way to Texas now, he said. The team will follow anyone who has had contact with the man for 21 days. If they develop any symptoms, they’ll immediately be isolated, as will anyone who has had contact with them. The diagnosis was first confirmed by a Texas lab based on samples of the man’s blood, and confirmed by the CDC.

The man was exposed to only a “handful” of people during the time when he had symptoms, including family members and possibly some community members, according to Frieden. He said there was little risk to anyone on a flight with the man.

“Ebola doesn’t spread before someone gets sick, and he didn’t get sick until four days until after he got off the airplane,” Frieden said. “So we don’t believe there was any risk to anyone on the flight at that time.”

At the same time, another suspected case is being evaluated at a National Institutes of Health facility, U.S. officials said, the 13th such possible infection in the U.S. All others have tested negative.

The Ebola outbreak has been concentrated in three West Africa countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The outbreak there has infected 6,574 and killed 3,091 people so far, according to the CDC. U.S. public health officials have been isolating and testing travelers who returned from the region with symptoms of the disease.

The latest cases come after at least three American aid workers who were diagnosed with Ebola in Africa were evacuated to U.S. hospitals, treated and discharged.

There is no approved treatment for Ebola, though drugmakers are attempting to develop vaccines or medicines that could be used in this or a future outbreak. Current care involves isolating the patients so they can’t infect others, and providing supportive treatment such as intravenous fluids and antibiotics to fight opportunistic infections.

U.S. health officials have downplayed the chance of a major outbreak of the disease in the U.S., saying the country’s superior medical infrastructure would be able to quickly isolate the disease.

“It’s not a potential of Ebola spreading widely in the U.S.,” Frieden said on a July 31 conference call with reporters. “That is not in the cards.”

U.S. and European governments have been criticized for being slow to respond, and much of the fight against the outbreak has been conducted by missionary and charitable groups with personnel on the ground, including Doctors Without Borders, Samaritans Purse and SIM USA. The groups have said they are overwhelmed, do not have enough beds to treat patients, and that the outbreak is rapidly growing out of control.

The U.S. Department of Defense has authorized sending 1,400 troops to Liberia to help contain the spread of Ebola virus in Western Africa, where the virus has crippled existing medical infrastructure. The troops will supervise the construction of ebola treatment units, conduct site surveys and provide engineering expertise, John Kirby, a press secretary for the department said in a news briefing today. Half of the troops will come from the 101st Airborne Division while the remaining 700 will come from the Army.

The pledge to send troops was part of the U.S. effort to contain the spread of Ebola virus, and governments and international aid groups are sending money and personnel to help fight the outbreak. Leaders in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea urged the international community to do more to keep the epidemic, the worst in history, from killing their people and harming their economies.