The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the first case of diagnosed Ebola virus in United States. The patient, still not identified, was admitted on Monday to an isolation unit at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas to be tested for Ebola after he began exhibiting symptoms. He had recently flown to the U.S. from Liberia.

 

At a news conference Tuesday evening, CDC Director Tom Frieden said, "I have no doubt that we will control this importation, this case of Ebola, so it will not spread widely in this country."

 

Frieden said the patient left Liberia on Sept. 19 and arrived in the United States the next day. He was not experiencing symptoms at the time, and therefore would not have been contagious to any other travelers. "Ebola doesn't spread before someone gets sick, and he didn't get sick until 4 days after he got off the airplane. So we don't believe there was any risk to anyone on the flight," Frieden said.

 

The patient started to develop symptoms on Sept. 24 and was admitted to the hospital in Dallas on Sept. 28 and placed in isolation. He was tested for Ebola on Monday and the results came back positive today.

 

The virus has killed more than 3,000 people across West Africa and infected a handful of American health care workers who were working in the region.

 

In August, American missionary Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantley contracted Ebola at the treatment center where they were working in Liberia. Both were flown to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta in strict medical isolation and both recovered. A third patient, Dr. Rick Sacra, was also evacuated from West Africa and treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where he recovered earlier this month.

 

The CDC has said 12 other people in the U.S. have been tested for Ebola since late July, including a man at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, but all of those tests came back negative.

 

This is a developing story and will be updated.

 

Source:

CBS News