A Texas hospital patient has tested positive for ebola, making the
patient the first case diagnosed in the United States. The patient is an adult
with a recent history of travel to West Africa who developed symptoms days
after returning to Texas and was admitted into isolation on Sunday at a
hospital in Dallas. Texas health officials and US CDC are working to
investigate the case and prevent transmission of the disease.
There have been no reported cases of ebola in Maine.
The current outbreak of ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa
is the largest outbreak of EVD ever documented and the first recorded in
West Africa. For ongoing information about the outbreak in West Africa, go
to http://go.usa.gov/Eu9B
US CDC advises US residents to avoid all non-essential travel to
the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea and to practice
enhanced precautions when traveling to Nigeria. For more details on enhanced
precautions, please see http://go.usa.gov/Eu9e.
For travelers who have recently been to affected countries in West Africa, Maine CDC advises that you self-monitor general health for 21 days after departing West Africa. Travelers should be especially vigilant for symptoms of fever (>101.5°F or 38.6°C), severe headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, and unexplained bleeding. Should you develop any of these signs of symptoms, please seek medical attention immediately and inform your provider of your recent travel history.
Maine CDC issued an update for health care providers Aug. 1. The
health alert is available at http://go.usa.gov/NEHH
While the possibility of infected people entering the US remains low, Maine CDC advises health care providers in Maine to consider EVD in the differential diagnosis of febrile illness with compatible symptoms in any person with recent (within 21 days) travel history in the affected countries, and consider isolation of those patients meeting these criteria, pending diagnostic testing. If a provider suspects EVD, the patient should be placed in isolation and the provider should call Maine CDC (1-800-821-5821) for guidance on possible testing. Other infectious diseases, such as Malaria, Yellow fever, dengue fever, and chikungunya should be ruled out.
