Today, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.) confirmed the first case of Ebola—the virus that has wreaked havoc in West Africa for the last several months and killed upwards of 3,000 people—in the United States. Specifically, the officials announced that they were treating a patient at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas.
The news, of course, took Twitter by storm, and the responses have ranged from fearful to downright hysterical.
CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in the United States http://t.co/rYIzgg6S01
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) September 30, 2014
PANIC
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) September 30, 2014
However, the question remains: how worried should you be?
The spread of Ebola is certainly nothing to take lightly, says University of Chicago professor Michael Z. David, Ph.D., who specializes in infectious diseases. Ebola has one of the highest mortality rates of any known infection, killing up to 90% of those who catch it.
But, David says, “While this all sounds very frightening, there’s no need to worry at this point about Ebola spreading widely here.” Thanks to the CDC and state health departments, he explains, there are strict regulations to control the spread of the virus.
“In countries where Ebola is now spreading rapidly, there’s great fear and distrust of the medical system. But here, while the disease could spread in a very limited way,” he says, “it’s likely that each infected or exposed person would be rapidly hospitalized.”
That appears to already be the case. We'll keep our fingers crossed.