The 2014-2015 Ebola Outbreak: The United States
Ebola hit the United States on September 30, 2014. Thomas Eric Duncan had recently traveled from Liberia to Dallas, Texas to visit family. He became sick a few days after he arrived in Dallas. Mr. Duncan went to the hospital where he was admitted and tested for the presence of Ebola based on his symptoms and recent travel from a country with a widespread Ebola outbreak. He tested positive for Ebola, and he died on October 8, 2014. The video on the right explains more about Mr. Duncan's case and his travel to the United States.
Mr. Duncan was the first human case of Ebola diagnosed and confirmed in the United States. Prior to this case, Ebola had not been diagnosed in the United States, even in all of the past Ebola outbreaks. As with some other countries, Ebola was spread to the United States through the travel of someone who had been exposed to Ebola in West Africa. |
Cases of Ebola Outside of West Africa
Click on the button below to download and view a table listing all of the cases of Ebola outside of West Africa in the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak. |
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A few American aid workers have been diagnosed with Ebola while working with Ebola patients in West Africa. These patients have been transported back to the United States for medical treatment. All but one of these patients have survived; some were treated with an experimental drug or with blood transfusions from an Ebola survivor. The two videos on the left tell the story of some of these brave and heroic Americans. Some of these patients arrived in the United States for treatment prior to Mr. Duncan's travel to the United States. These patients were confirmed Ebola cases prior to being intentionally transported to the United States for treatment, so treatment facilities were prepared for their arrival. Mr. Duncan's case is different because he was the first diagnosed and confirmed Ebola case in the United States, so he is the index case. |
Two nurses who treated Mr. Duncan in the Dallas, Texas hospital were infected and diagnosed with Ebola. Nina Pham tested positive for Ebola on October 10, 2014 and was transferred and treated at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) Clinical Center. She was released and declared Ebola free on October 24, 2014. The second nurse, Amber Vinson, tested positive on October 15, 2014. She was transferred to a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia where she was treated and released on on October 28, 2014 after being declared Ebola free. Both nurses were placed in isolation during their treatment to prevent spread of Ebola to other humans. Nurse Pham's dog, Bentley, was even placed in quarantine to ensure he did not have Ebola. He has been released and reunited with Nurse Pham. Bentley was monitored for 21 days, the maximum incubation period for Ebola, and never contracted Ebola.
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The 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak has created fear and panic in many people. Frightening images or stories of people with Ebola have been in the headlines for months. Sometimes it can be difficult to discern fact from fiction. Several important points are worth restating to ensure Ebola knowledge is based on fact.
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The following video dispels some of the common Ebola myths.
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