Photo: Rex USA. UPDATE: Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who was the first individual to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died at 7:51 a.m. this morning. Duncan is the first to die of Ebola in the States. He had been receiving treatment in the isolation ward of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the first Ebola case to be diagnosed in the United States. The CDC will make a formal announcement of the diagnosis at a press conference at its Atlanta headquarters at 5:30 PM EDT. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas stated that the patient is in "strict isolation" and that his or her symptoms and "recent travel patterns" are consistent with an Ebola diagnosis.
Before this afternoon's diagnosis, the hospital had already begun preparing for the eventuality of an Ebola-infected patient. Zachary Thompson, the director at the Dallas Country Health & Human Services, assured the public that the hospital was taking all precautions prescribed by the CDC. "This is not Africa," he stated. "We have a great infrastructure to deal with an outbreak." So, you're still probably not going to die of Ebola.