Quote: CDC still not inclined to close US points of entry, director says
Published October 04, 2014
·FoxNews.com
Federal officials confirmed Saturday that the suspected Ebola patient at the District of Columbia’s Howard University hospital does not have the fatal disease and reiterated their top priority is protecting Americans, amid widespread concerns about a confirmed Ebola case in Dallas.
Tom Frieden, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the federal government is looking at different safety-related suggestions from Capitol Hill and beyond, but he suggested the key is to control the deadly virus where it started overseas, not putting a lockdown on U.S. points of entry.
“Though we might wish we can seal ourselves off from the world, there are Americans that have the right of return and many other people that have the right to enter this country,” Frieden said at a press conference. “We're not going to be able to get to zero risk no matter what we do unless we control the outbreak in West Africa.”
The recent outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people this year in that region.
Frieden said Saturday that officials are “beginning to see some progress” toward controlling the outbreak, “but it's going to be a long hard road.”
The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United Sates went to a Dallas hospital last week but was mistakenly sent home, despite revealing he was visiting from Liberia, before returning by ambulance days later.
"There were things that did not go the way they should have in Dallas," Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious diseases chief at the National Institutes of Health, said Friday. "But there were a lot of things that went right and are going right."
Texas officials now are monitoring 50 people, 10 of whom they consider at high risk, who came into contact with the man, identified as Thomas Eric Duncan. They've had to quarantine four of them, and even had problems getting rid of the infectious waste left in the apartment where the patient stayed.
Texas health officials say Duncan is now in critical condition.
Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said during the Saturday press conference that he took the four to a new home where they will be quarantined for 21 days.
Jenkins, the county top elected official, urged Americans to show compassion for them, saying they are deeply concerned about the public’s health and are people “just like in your family.”
In addition to the Ebola being ruled out for the District of Columbia patient, a patient at a nearby suburban Maryland hospital who had been in West Africa and was suspected of having the virus in fact has malaria, officials also said this weekend.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/...lose-us-points/
Regards,
hm
Published October 04, 2014
·FoxNews.com
Federal officials confirmed Saturday that the suspected Ebola patient at the District of Columbia’s Howard University hospital does not have the fatal disease and reiterated their top priority is protecting Americans, amid widespread concerns about a confirmed Ebola case in Dallas.
Tom Frieden, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the federal government is looking at different safety-related suggestions from Capitol Hill and beyond, but he suggested the key is to control the deadly virus where it started overseas, not putting a lockdown on U.S. points of entry.
“Though we might wish we can seal ourselves off from the world, there are Americans that have the right of return and many other people that have the right to enter this country,” Frieden said at a press conference. “We're not going to be able to get to zero risk no matter what we do unless we control the outbreak in West Africa.”
The recent outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people this year in that region.
Frieden said Saturday that officials are “beginning to see some progress” toward controlling the outbreak, “but it's going to be a long hard road.”
The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United Sates went to a Dallas hospital last week but was mistakenly sent home, despite revealing he was visiting from Liberia, before returning by ambulance days later.
"There were things that did not go the way they should have in Dallas," Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious diseases chief at the National Institutes of Health, said Friday. "But there were a lot of things that went right and are going right."
Texas officials now are monitoring 50 people, 10 of whom they consider at high risk, who came into contact with the man, identified as Thomas Eric Duncan. They've had to quarantine four of them, and even had problems getting rid of the infectious waste left in the apartment where the patient stayed.
Texas health officials say Duncan is now in critical condition.
Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said during the Saturday press conference that he took the four to a new home where they will be quarantined for 21 days.
Jenkins, the county top elected official, urged Americans to show compassion for them, saying they are deeply concerned about the public’s health and are people “just like in your family.”
In addition to the Ebola being ruled out for the District of Columbia patient, a patient at a nearby suburban Maryland hospital who had been in West Africa and was suspected of having the virus in fact has malaria, officials also said this weekend.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/...lose-us-points/
Regards,
hm
