Gov. Rick Perry today joined state and local health officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to inform the public of the measures being taken to guard the public’s health following the first diagnosed case of Ebola in the United States
Update at 4:25 p.m.
ATLANTA (AP) — Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say a 10-person team has arrived in Dallas to help investigate the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the United States.
CDC officials said in a statement Wednesday that three senior scientists, five epidemic intelligence service officers, a public health adviser and a communications officer have been sent from Atlanta to Dallas to work with local and state officials.
Officials say the CDC experts will help Texas authorities find, assess and help anyone who came into contact with the patient between the time he started showing symptoms and the time he was placed in isolation.
Officials say the team is interviewing the patient and close contacts to get more details on his travel history and more.
Update at 2:36 p.m.
DALLAS (AP) — According to his sister, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States has said he notified health care workers the first time he went to the hospital that he was visiting the U.S. from Liberia.
It’s one of the West African countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak.
His sister says Thomas Duncan went to a Dallas emergency room on Friday and was sent home with antibiotics. He returned two days later after his condition worsened, and was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
A doctor confirms that a nurse asked Duncan on his first visit whether he’d been in an area affected by the Ebola outbreak, but that the “information was not fully communicated throughout the whole team.”
A nine-member group of federal health officials is tracking anyone who had close contact with Duncan. The team from the Centers for Disease Control is in Dallas to ensure that those people are watched every day for 21 days.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says anyone who develops a fever will be isolated.
In all, officials are monitoring 12 to 18 people who may have been exposed to Duncan, including three members of the ambulance crew that took him to the hospital and five schoolchildren.
Update at 11:00 a.m.
DALLAS (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry has scheduled a news conference at a Dallas hospital where a man with the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. remains in isolation.
Perry plans to speak at noon CDT Wednesday at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. He’ll be joined by Dr. David Lakey, who’s commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Blood tests by state and federal health officials confirmed the Ebola diagnosis Tuesday. The man recently flew from Liberia to Dallas to be with relatives.
Experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working to help locate his family, friends or others who came in contact with the sick man.
Mayor Mike Rawlings has activated the emergency’s operations center at Dallas City Hall.
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