CDC confirms first Ebola case in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said it had confirmed the first case of Ebola in the United States.

A Dallas hospital on Monday announced it was treating a patient in isolation whose "symptoms and recent travel indicated a case of Ebola." The CDC added more detail Tuesday, saying the patient traveled by plane from Liberia on Sept. 19 and became ill four or five days after returning to the states. The CDC added that the patient, whose name has not been released, did not exhibit symptoms of Ebola while on the plane.

CDC Director Tom Friedman said the agency had identified all the people whom the patient interacted with and could have infected after developing symptoms. He added there was no reason to suspect anyone else had been infected, and said there was "no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

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

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa — the largest outbreak in history — has killed nearly 3,100 people, per the CDC.