Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy Exhibiting Ebola Symptoms

An afternoon news conference has been called in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas, to discuss a possible second case of Ebola.

According to a statement from the City of Frisco, the patient claims to have had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, referred to as Dallas ‘patient zero.’

The Frisco patient has been identified as a Dallas County deputy Michael Monnig, who was not one of the 48 people being monitored by federal, state and local health officials because he never had direct contact with the patient. Monnig responded and entered Duncan’s apartment.

The call came in shortly after noon from Care Now, 301 W. Main Street, where the patient was “exhibiting signs and symptoms of Ebola.”

CBS 11 has confirmed with Care Now that the facility is in contact with the Centers for Disease Control and is holding everyone in the facility until receiving clearance from the CDC. The patient has been transported to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital by Frisco firefighter-paramedics, the same hospital where Duncan, the first patient to be diagnosed with the virus on American soil, was admitted. Duncan died earlier today, after spending more than 10 days in isolation at that hospital.

Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas confirmed the patient’s arrival to the Emergency Room in statement, which reads in part, “Right now, there are more questions than answers about this case. Our professional staff of nurses and doctors is prepared to examine the patient, discuss any findings with appropriate agencies and officials. We are on alert with precautions and systems in place.” The hospital is still admitting and caring for other patients at this time.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office said the deputy “expressed concern and we directed that deputy to the Dallas County Health & Human Services for care.”

Meanwhile, first responders are also examining clinical staff and other patients at the Care Now facility. It is unknown how many other people may have been exposed to the patient.

[H/T CBSLocal]

General: If Ebola Reaches Central America, ‘There Will Be Mass Migration into the U.S.’

Those looking for good news on the fight against Ebola will not find much encouragement from Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, the commander of the U.S. Southern Command. As Jim Garamone of Department of Defense News reports, Kelly told an audience at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday that, if the disease reaches Central America, “it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States.” He also said with certainty that “there is no way we can keep Ebola [contained] in West Africa.”

“By the end of the year, there’s supposed to be 1.4 million people infected with Ebola and 62 percent of them dying, according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]…”

“So, much like West Africa, it will rage for a period of time,” Kelly said.

This is particularly possible scenario if the disease gets to Haiti or Central America, he said. If the disease gets to countries like Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, it will cause a panic and people will flee the region, the general said.

“If it breaks out, it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States,” Kelly said. “They will run away from Ebola, or if they suspect they are infected, they will try to get to the United States for treatment.”

Kelly said that human trafficking could be an additional wrinkle in the battle to contain the disease. He related a disturbing anecdote from a recent visit to Central America where some men from Liberia were headed to the United States:

Also, transnational criminal networks smuggle people and those people can be carrying Ebola, the general said. Kelly spoke of visiting the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with U.S. embassy personnel. At that time, a group of men “were waiting in line to pass into Nicaragua and then on their way north,” he recalled.

“The embassy person walked over and asked who they were and they told him they were from Liberia and they had been on the road about a week,” Kelly continued. “They met up with the network in Trinidad and now they were on their way to the United States — illegally, of course.”

Those men, he said, “could have made it to New York City and still be within the incubation period for Ebola.”

Earlier this year, General Kelly gave some chilling testimony about the limitations on the United States’s ability to protect the southern border:

In spring hearings before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Kelly said that budgets cuts are “severely degrading” the military’s ability to defend southern approaches to the U.S border. Last year, he said, his task force was unable to act on nearly 75 percent of illicit trafficking events. “I simply sit and watch it go by,” he said. But the potential threats are even greater. Kelly warned that neglect has created vulnerabilities that can be exploited by terrorist groups, describing a “crime-terror convergence” already seen in Lebanese Hezbollah’s involvement in the region.

While Centers for Disease Control director Tom Frieden recently expressed some optimism in the fight against Ebola in West Africa, he acknowledged that “globally, this is going to be a long, hard fight.”

[H/T The Weekly Standard]

Dallas Ebola Patient Dies

Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national, died Wednesday, confirmed Texas Health Presbyterian.

According to a hospital statement, Duncan died at 7:51 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

“Mr. Duncan succumbed to an insidious disease, Ebola. He fought courageously in this battle. Our professionals, the doctors and nurses in the unit, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas community, are also grieving his passing. We have offered the family our support and condolences at this difficult time,” the statement read.

Duncan was the first person diagnosed with the deadly virus on U.S. soil, and had been given the experimental medication brincidofovir. A hospital in Nebraska said it is using the same drug to treat an American journalist who was airlifted from Liberia and arrived Monday.

He had been in critical condition and on a ventilator and a kidney dialysis before his death.

Duncan had been in isolation since Sept. 28.

Authorities in the United States and the public are on alert following Duncan’s diagnosis more than a week ago, which raised concerns that the worst epidemic of Ebola on record could spread from three hardest-hit impoverished countries – Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Duncan, who arrived in Texas in late September on a commercial flight from Liberia, has been in critical condition since Saturday.

Texas state health officials said they are monitoring 10 people who had close contact with Duncan and 38 others who came into contact with that group to see if anyone had developed signs of infection. So far, no one has shown any symptoms, health officials said.

Officials have said this is a critical week to see if any of those exposed in Dallas develop signs of the virus that has killed more than 3,400 people since an outbreak in West Africa began in March, out of nearly 7,500 confirmed, probable and suspected cases.

Dallas residents have mostly taken in news of Ebola within the city limits calmly, but many have kept a close eye on whether it might spread. Cars of Dallas County Sheriff’s deputies who were at the scene of the apartment where Duncan stayed have been scrubbed as a precaution, the sheriff’s office said.

Prominent civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson met members of Duncan’s family and held a prayer vigil on Tuesday in front of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

Jackson said the hospital initially discharged Duncan because he was poor and did not have medical insurance. About two days after Duncan left the hospital, he was taken back by ambulance and put into isolation. The hospital and health officials have said mistakes were made in handling Duncan.

[H/T Fox News]