The Centers for Disease Control confirmed Tuesday that a patient in Dallas became the first-ever patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
The following are five things to know about this Ebola case and the nation's history with Ebola and similar diseases.
1. The patient is being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. While Texas Health Presbyterian is not one of the nation's four hospitals with a biocontainment care unit specially designed to care for patients exposed to highly contagious and dangerous diseases, hospital officials are confident the hospital can treat this patient. "Texas Health Dallas has a robust infection control system and our staff is trained and prepared to take care of patients with a variety of infectious diseases, including Ebola," according to a Texas Health statement. The hospital is operating as usual, and the patient in question is being treated in isolation.
2. The patient has been identified as Thomas Eric Duncan from Liberia. Liberian officials identified him Wednesday, according to the New York Times. He had direct contact with a woman with Ebola four days before he left Liberia to visit family in the United States, where he arrived Sept. 20, according to the Times. Mr. Duncan first sought care at Texas Health Presbyterian on Sept. 26 after having developed symptoms Sept. 24. During that first visit, Mr. Duncan had a fever and reportedly told a nurse at the hospital he recently came from Liberia. However, that information was not relayed to the entire care team and he was sent home, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Duncan returned to the hospital via an ambulance Sept. 28 and was then placed in isolation.
3. This is not the first time a U.S. hospital has treated an Ebola patient. Four Americans exposed to Ebola in West Africa have been treated in recent weeks at two hospitals: Emory University Hospital in Atlanta successfully treated and discharged two Ebola patients and is currently treating a third, while The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha also successfully treated and released an Ebola patient. The NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., also currently has a patient in isolation who was exposed to Ebola.
4. The U.S. has experience with imported cases of diseases similar to Ebola. In the last 10 years, the nation has had five imported cases of viral hemorrhagic fever diseases similar to Ebola: one case of Marburg virus disease and four cases of Lassa fever. None of those cases resulted in further transmission in the U.S.
5. Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the CDC, maintains that the nation's healthcare system will contain the spread of Ebola. To help do so, the CDC and Texas public health officials are identifying those who have been in close personal contact with the Ebola patient through contact tracing (infographic). Anyone who has been in close contact with the patient will be monitored for 21 days — the length of Ebola's incubation period. According to the Chicago Tribune, that includes the ambulance crew that was exposed to the patient, and crew members have been quarantined and will be monitored during the possible incubation period.
Dr. Frieden also said it is "not impossible that there could be additional cases associated with this patient in the coming weeks."
Find more information on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa — the largest in history — and the disease in general here.
Note: This story was updated 10/2 to reflect new information.