Dr. Ian Mackay, PhD is a virologist with The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. See more of Dr Mackay’s blogging at Virology Down Under

This digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts a number of filamentous Ebola virus particles (red) that had budded from the surface of a VERO cell (blue-gray) of the African green monkey kidney epithelial cell line./NIAID
This digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts a number of filamentous Ebola virus particles (red) that had budded from the surface of a VERO cell (blue-gray) of the African green monkey kidney epithelial cell line./NIAID

This is the first case of Ebola virus infection to arrive in the United States that was not deliberately flown in. Its not the first viral haemorrhagic fever case though (1 case of Marburg virus disease and at least 4 Lassa virus infections and the Reston ebolavirus outbreak among imported animals[3,5]), and none of the earlier infections resulted in secondary transmission among humans; no-one else got infected from by the case.[4]

The male is in critical condition. When he flew from Liberia to the United States (finally arriving in Dallas,Texas). The man was not showing signs of disease when leaving Liberia or on the plane or immediately after arriving.[6]This means that the man was not infectious – he could not spread it to fellow travellers or airport workers – because it is well known that disease in another does not develop due to virus being shed before disease is obvious in the infected person.

Briefly[1,2]:
  • 19th: Departed Liberia, checked and found to be symptom-free
  • 20th: Arrived in Dallas, US (connecting flights?)
  • 24th: Started to develop symptoms
  • 26th: Initially sought care
  • 28th: Admitted to hospital in Texas.
  • 30th: Texas public health laboratory found Ebola virus this morning of 30th Sept. CDC received samples, tested and confirmed as Ebola virus disease
  • Patient is ill and is under intensive care
US family and community contacts (a “handful”) are known or being traced and will be under observation/monitoring for 21-days (~21-Oct) for fever. Will any become positive for Ebola virus? Perhaps. I look to Port Harcourt (Nigeria) for some comfort. There were around 60 “high risk” contacts of there and they did not all become ill.So now we have evidence that supports all those talking heads (me included) who noted that it was possible for sporadic cases of EVD to be imported into countries outside of those in West Africa (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal).

Soon, I very much believe, we will also have evidence that in richer countries with functioning healthcare systems, a good knowledge of what is needed to contain virus infections spread by all possible routes, stocks of the necessary personal protective equipment needed to protect healthcare workers from nosocomial infections and the training to use those stocks…to support that even when such cases arrive, they do not result in outbreaks.

References…
  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bxencye1cg&feature=youtu.be
  2. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/health/airline-passenger-with-ebola-is-under-treatment-in-dallas.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes
  3. http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2014/08/02/ebola-is-already-in-the-united-states/.
  4. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/molecules-to-medicine/2014/09/30/ebola-in-usno-need-to-panic/?WT.mc_id=SA_sharetool_Twitter
  5. http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/s930-ebola-confirmed-case.html
  6. http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2014/09/one-more-ebola-question-dr-frieden-answers-journalists-would-have-first-u-s-case?rss=1