Health Officials: No Ebola Outbreak in U.S., but We’re Prepping Anyway
CDC and WHO are trying to contain the outbreak in West Africa and are ready if it hits the U.S., where one case has been confirmed.
By Kimberly Leonard
USNews.com
July 31, 2014
The risk of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. is unlikely, but health officials say they are responding anyway, sending advisories to hospitals, preparing to quarantine those who may have been infected, discouraging travel to certain countries and pouring funds into West Africa to contain the outbreak.
In a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention press briefing Thursday, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the agency, says 50 staff members, including health communications experts and epidemiologists, are being sent to affected areas. While he stresses the virus shows little threat to the U.S., he says it is worsening in West Africa. “This is the largest most complex [Ebola] outbreak that we know if in history,” he says, adding that it may take as much as six months to contain.
Only a few hours after the CDC briefing, Emory University, in conjunction with the CDC, released a statement saying it is preparing to treat the first Ebola patient here in the United States. Staff members at Emory Hospital in Atlanta, where the CDC is headquartered, were not able to confirm the identity or current whereabouts of the patient, or when the patient would arrive, but said he or she will be treated in an isolation unit.
The Rest…HERE
