麻豆传媒

A man in intensive care in Dallas is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in U.S., the CDC said.

The man, who flew from Liberia Sept. 19 and arrived in Dallas Sept. 20, is "critically ill" at , according to CDC Director .

A team of investigators from the agency is heading to Dallas to help with the investigation and to help prevent any further spread of the virus, Frieden told reporters in a late afternoon telebriefing.

"I have no doubt that we will control this importation, this case of Ebola, so that it does not spread widely in this country," Frieden said.

"We're stopping it in its tracks in this country," he said. Although it is "possible" that some of the man's contacts in the U.S. will develop Ebola in the coming weeks, Frieden said it's highly unlikely that anyone caring for him will come down with the disease.

The hospital has a "robust infection control system" and there is no plan to move him to another institution, according to Edward Goodman, MD, the hospital epidemiologist at Texas Health Presbyterian.

A spokesman for the hospital said earlier the patient had been put into "strict isolation" after his symptoms and recent travel history raised concerns.

Frieden said the man was checked for fever before getting on his U.S.-bound flight Sept. 19 and had no symptoms until Sept. 24. He did not give details of the flight, saying there was no risk to other passengers because Ebola is not infectious in its asymptomatic phase.

Frieden and other health officials also did not give details of the man's activities between Sept. 26, when he first sought care, and Sept. 28 when he was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian.

Frieden did say that he appears to have had contact with only a "handful" of other people once symptoms appeared, most of them family members. He also did not say whether the man is an American citizen, saying only that he was "visiting family members who live here."

At this point, he said, it does not appear the patient was involved in healthcare in Liberia, but investigators also don't know exactly how he was infected.

Frieden emphasized that the virus is only passed by direct contract with infected body fluids.

"While we do not know how this individual became infected," he said, he "undoubtedly had close contact with someone who was sick from Ebola or who had died from it."

So far this year, four Americans have been infected by Ebola while working in West Africa and have been flown back to the U.S. for treatment at hospitals in Atlanta and Omaha.

Three have recovered and been discharged while the fourth, who has not been identified, remains under treatment in Atlanta's .

The Ebola outbreak has been raging in West Africa for several months, after it was first recognized in March.

In the three hardest-hit countries -- Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone -- the virus has caused 6,553 infections and 3,083 deaths, according to the latest situation report from the .

Meanwhile, an American physician who was treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has been admitted to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., after being exposed to the virus.

"Out of an abundance of caution," the agency said in a statement, the patient was brought home and admitted to a special unit that is "specifically designed to provide high-level isolation capabilities and is staffed by infectious diseases and critical care specialists."

director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters the doctor was "exposed to the virus in a way that is a risk for infection" but might not actually have the virus.

For reasons of confidentiality, the agency gave no further details of the case, except to say that the physician will participate in a clinical protocol.

While the doctor is in a state-of-the-art facility, the agency statement said, "it is important to remember that Ebola patients can be safely cared for at any hospital that follows CDC's infection control recommendations and can isolate a patient in a private room."

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