(RxWiki News) A patient being treated at a Dallas, TX hospital is the first confirmed case of Ebola diagnosed in the US, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday.
Other Americans have been diagnosed with the virus in West Africa — which is now experiencing the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history — and brought to the US for treatment, but this is the first case diagnosed in the US.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas said in a press statement that the unnamed patient had been in "strict isolation" since Monday, when he or she checked into the hospital with symptoms of Ebola virus disease (EVD).
EVD is the often fatal disease caused by the Ebola virus. It has killed at least 3,000 people in West Africa since the current outbreak began about six months ago.
Symptoms of EVD include sudden onset of intense fever, muscle pain, headache and bleeding. The time period between infection with the virus and onset of symptoms is between two to 21 days. People who have been in contact with those infected with Ebola should be monitored for those 21 days.
The virus is transferred through bodily fluids. According to one Dallas Health official who spoke with CBS DFW News, the Dallas patient would have to have exposed someone to his or her bodily fluids for the disease to spread. If that didn't happen, the risk of the virus spreading is low.
