Tuesday, September 30, 2014

First confirmed case of Ebola in the United States. Yahoo News

The Texas hospital where the man was admitted. Yahoo.

The first case of Ebola in the United States, and indeed the world outside of Africa, has been diagnosed in Texas. Yahoo News. The man had recently come from Liberia where the disease is running rampant. The man, who has not been identified, has been put into an isolation ward in Dallas Texas. The man arrived in Texas on the 20th, fell ill on the 24th but was not admitted until the 28th. He was not showing symptoms on the flight, so it is very unlikely that the people on the plane with him will become ill. Although four aid workers have been treated in America, this is the first case to be transmitted here "in the wild". 

My Comment:
Sounds like that study that predicted a 1 in 5 chance of Ebola arriving in the United States was correct.  This is incredibly bad news and I really hope the CDC and the Texas hospital where this man is being treated is on their game. The fact that he fell ill on the 24th but wasn't in the hospital until the 28th is extremely disturbing. Every single person this man interacted with needs to be isolated for the entire incubation period. If just one person slips through the cracks or flees then Ebola has a chance at spreading.

What are our chances here? It's not the end of the world. Senegal and Nigeria were able to contain their mini-outbreaks and their health systems are much more primitive then the United States. Our government is going to take this very seriously and we don't have the cultural practices that they do in West Africa, like touching dead bodies. So there is a very good chance that this outbreak could be contained with only a few cases or even just the one. Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't extremely concerned. I just posted this morning that Ebola has essentially destroyed Liberia, and even though it's unlikely to happen here, it's still a non-zero chance of disaster. It always was as long as the outbreak in Africa is still happening but now that the disease is here the chances are better.   

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