CDC Confirms Ebola in the US

In case the mess of satirical and actual panic on social media hasn't alerted you of the situation yet, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has finally confirmed that a case of Ebola has been diagnosed in the United States.

The confirmation came from the CDC Monday evening Sept. 30, detailing how an unnamed person in the United States fell ill on Sept. 24 and sought medical care two days later at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

"After developing symptoms consistent with Ebola, he was admitted to hospital on Sept. 28. Based on the person's travel history and symptoms, CDC recommended testing for Ebola. The medical facility isolated the patient and sent specimens for testing," the CDC reported yesterday.

When those results came back, the diagnosis was confirmed and a CDC team was dispatched to Dallas to assist in an ongoing investigation.

Still, the CDC's Director, Tom Frieden, is quick to say that while Ebola is a very real problem that the world is struggling with, there is very little chance that this imported and isolated case could spark an epidemic in the United States.

"Ebola can be scary. But there's all the difference in the world between the US and parts of Africa where Ebola is spreading. The United States has a strong health care system and public health professionals who will make sure this case does not threaten our communities," he announced.

"While it is not impossible that there could be additional cases associated with this patient in the coming weeks, I have no doubt that we will contain this," Frieden added.

And he has no reason to believe differently. Investigations conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) have already revealed that the Ebola strain currently devastating West Africa is no more contagious than the strains of Ebola that developed countries and even isolated regions like the Congo have kept contained in the past.

What makes this latest outbreak different is a perfect storm of inadequate medical response and plain ignorance - inadequacies that the United States does not suffer from.

Nature World News previously reported how experts using WHO statistics concluded that the world would be seeing up to 7,000 additional cases of Ebola by the end of September, some of which would undoubtedly be imported cases of the disease. According to the CDC, the United States just happened to receive one of these cases, which had been incubating in the patient during a flight back from West Africa.