CDC Confirms First Case of Ebola Diagnosed in US

The first case of the deadly Ebola virus in the United States has been diagnosed, confirmed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. The patient is a man who became infected in Liberia and traveled to Texas, where he was hospitalized with symptoms that were confirmed to be caused by Ebola, a CDC spokesman told AFP. The disease caused by Ebola virus also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, gets its name from Ebola River flowing near a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the place where the Ebola virus disease first appeared.

The Ebola virus is known to be transmitted through contact with body fluids or blood from a person who is infected or through needles used by infected persons. Due to the high mortality and very quick death, the spread of the disease is limited.

There is currently no licensed treatment or vaccine against the Ebola virus that has killed nearly 3,000 people in West Africa, and the World Health Organization has endorsed speeding up experimental treatments and vaccines.

WHO is especially focusing on two experimental vaccines and has said thousands of experimental Ebola vaccine doses could be ready for use by early 2015.

Source-AFP