© David Woo/Staff Photographer
The report was delivered after Health and Human Services officials cut short a presentation on the threat of an Ebola outbreak for a conference call with the CDC. Officials said the CDC team would lead the response if test results, expected today, come back positive for the patient at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas.
During a media briefing outside the commissioners meeting, Dr. Christopher Perkins, the health department's medical director, said it was after arriving home from West Africa that the patient started showing symptoms, the point at which Ebola becomes contagious.
"We know at this time this person was not symptomatic during travel but became symptomatic once arriving here and being home for several days," Perkins said. "So that decreases the threat that might be to the general population."
Symptoms of the deadly virus can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and body aches unrelated to any other disease.
Health and Human Services officials told commissioners that they had already begun an investigation to find people who had been in contact with the patient. Director Zachary Thompson said it was not unusual for the department to begin tracing contacts after being notified about a possible contagious disease. County nurse epidemiologists are tracking down the patient's family members, friends and work colleagues, basically anyone who might have been exposed, if the virus is confirmed, he said.
If the disease is confirmed, further steps may be taken to isolate those contacts. Thompson indicated that officials do not believe the patient had widespread contact with others after the symptoms surfaced. He said more details would be released as necessary later in the day.
During their presentation prior to the CDC call, health department officials sought to downplay the threat of a local outbreak. Perkins reminded commissioners that Ebola isn't transmitted through the air -- it is passed through contact with blood or other bodily fluids. Officials also assured residents that the local situation is nowhere near as dire as in West Africa.
"In general, the threat is minimal to the citizens of Dallas County," Perkins said.
All hospitals in Dallas County are prepared to halt the spread of infectious disease, health officials said. And there are no shortages of supplies, such as gloves, to protect people working with patients.
"Dallas County Health and Human Services has been planning for disease emergence for years," Thompson said. "This is not Africa. We have a great public health infrastructure to deal with this type of disease."
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas disclosed in a written statement Monday evening that a patient had been placed in "strict isolation" after the person's symptoms and recent travel history raised concerns.
The name of the patient and other details were not released.
The hospital said it was following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to ensure the safety of patients, staff members and visitors.
No Ebola cases have been confirmed in the United States, though several aid workers who contracted the disease in West Africa have returned to the U.S. for treatment.
Last month, patients in Sacramento and New York City were isolated because of concerns they'd contracted the disease, but they tested negative for the virus.
Specimens from such patients are delivered to the CDC in Atlanta for testing that takes 24 to 48 hours.
There have been more than 6,500 cases of the disease in Africa, and more than 3,000 deaths have been linked to it, according to the World Health Organization. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been hit the hardest.
Ebola has killed up to 90 percent of those it has infected, but the death rate in this outbreak is closer to 60 percent because of early treatment. The virus spreads through direct contact with blood, organs or other bodily fluids and with surfaces contaminated with the fluids.
Early signs of Ebola such as fever, diarrhea and vomiting can develop within two days of infection. There is no specific treatment, but doctors can provide fluids and pain relief before symptoms become severe. Death occurs from profuse internal and external bleeding that starves the organs of blood.
Dr. Kent Brantly, a Fort Worth physician who contracted the virus in July while doing relief work in Africa, was treated at an Atlanta hospital. He was discharged in August after nearly three weeks of care.
He and another American aid worker, Nancy Writebol, received an experimental treatment called ZMapp. It's unknown whether the drug helped or whether they improved on their own.
On Sunday, an American doctor who was exposed to the Ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone was admitted to an isolation unit at a hospital at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C.
Another aid worker who contracted Ebola while volunteering in West Africa also remains hospitalized.
The World Health Organization was first notified of the latest Ebola outbreak in March, but investigations have revealed that it began in December.
Outbreaks have occurred in Central Africa since the 1970s, but this is the first in West Africa and the largest outbreak in history.
Staff writers Matthew Watkins, Claire Z. Cardona and Sherry Jacobson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
the article itself says in case the patient tests positive.....
it (the article) also says no Ebola cases have been confirmed in the United States, though several aid workers who contracted the disease in West Africa have returned to the U.S. for treatment
Why the conflicting headline did someone mis-title it?