US monitors around 80 individuals for Ebola symptoms
The number of people believed to have come into contact with the US’s first victim of Ebola has increased to more than 80 individuals, including a handful of schoolchildren, according to reports.
It was reported on Tuesday that Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national, was found to be the US’s first reported case of Ebola. He arrived in Dallas to visit relatives on 20 September and is now in a serious condition in quarantine at a local hospital.
The investigations began with an initially modest number of around 15 people who were believed to have come into contact with Duncan. News has now broken that the figure may now be as many as 80 individuals.
Currently, none of the monitored individuals are showing symptoms, but the situation will be closely monitored in the coming weeks.
According to the World Health Organisation, more than 7,000 people in West Africa have recently suffered from Ebola, which has caused more than 3,000 deaths. Liberia has suffered most from the epidemic, closely followed by Sierra Leone and Guinea.
However, health officials in the US are reportedly confident that the virus will remain contained, as the basic level of sanitation in North America is much higher than Africa.
Director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas Frieden, said: "The bottom line here is I have no doubt that we will control this importation, this case of Ebola, so it does not spread widely in this country…We will stop it here."