Yesterday, the United Stated has reported its first confirmed case of Ebola diagnosed within the country, Tuesday, September 30, 2014. Previous cases in the country were of Americans diagnosed in West Africa and taken home for treatment.
The US Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention has confirmed the first domestic case of the deadly virus that has ravaged the West Coast of Africa since December 2013, CNBC reports. The patient has been placed on ”strict isolation” at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas in Texas.
A news update from Reuters says the patient is in a serious condition, according to the Texas’ hospitals’s spokesperson.
Texas governor, Rick Perry confirmed today, also, that some school-age children have been in contact with the Ebola patient. The school children, who have been identified, are being monitored for symptoms.
The patient was admitted on Sunday and on Monday, the hospital had issued a statement that a patient, who remains unnamed, was being tested for the deadly Ebola virus due to the patient’s symptoms and recent travel history.
World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that over 3,091 people have died from Ebola in the most deadly outbreak of the disease in history, and that Nigeria had successfully contained the disease since Liberian Patrick Sawyer brought the disease into the country in July 2014. Seven Nigerians have died of Ebola, five of which were primary contacts to Sawyer who passed away five days after arriving in the country.
Last week, the CDC warned that between 550,000 and 1.4 million people in West Africa could be infected with Ebola by January 2015.
