CBS Dallas Station, KTVT, has announced that the patient being treated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has been identified as Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan. Duncan is said to have travelled from Liberia in order to visit family in Dallas. According to CDC Dir. Tom Frieden, "This is the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the US, and the first case of this strain of Ebola diagnosed outside Africa."
Since reports of the Ebola case became known that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have put in extra effort to reassure the American public that there is no immediate threat to public health. Dir. Frieden said in a statement, "I have no doubt that we will control this importation, this case of Ebola, so it will not spread widely in this country. I have no doubt we will stop it here." He added that the CDC is now tracking down "a handful" of other people who may have been exposed via close contact with Duncan in order to contain a possible contagion.
However, health authorities across the country are now preparing for the possibility of a state of panic, which usually means that people will be expected to associate every health symptom to the deadly virus. At the moment, questions have already been raised about why this patient was released several days ago from the same hospital after coming in and complaining of abdominal pain and fever. The attending nurse allegedly inquired whether Duncan had previously traveled to or from Africa, but was still allowed to leave the hospital despite his confirmation.
Authorities have already confirmed that the experimental serum ZMapp that had been previously used to treat two other American health workers who were infected with the Ebola virus will not be an option for the treatment of this patient. The supply for this experimental drug ran out in August and, although the pharmaceutical developers are already stepping up the production to meet the demand, the process for manufacturing the serum is neither quick nor easy.
