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A patient admitted to a Dallas hospital has tested positive for Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday. This marks the first case of a person diagnosed with Ebola in America, with the virus that has killed more than 3,000 people and infected thousands more across West Africa this year. The patient left Liberia on Sept. 19 and landed in the U.S. on Sept. 20, the CDC said, adding that he did not show any symptoms then. The patient then became ill in the U.S. on Sept. 24 and was admitted to the hospital on Sunday. (The virus is only contagious once symptoms like fever are visible and only spread through bodily fluids, such as blood.) The CDC said several family and community members may have had contact with the patient, but that there are no other suspected Ebola cases in Texas. Any people the patient has made contact with would be placed in isolation and monitored for 21 days, the maximum time Ebola patients are contagious.
“Bottom line here is that I have no doubt that we will control this case of Ebola, so that it does not spread widely in this country,” CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden said at a press conference.