WASHINGTON, October 3 (RIA Novosti) - Although Ebola is unlikely to spread very far in the United States, there is really no way to completely protect the country from the disease, Eric Toner, a Senior Associate from the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical told RIA Novosti on Friday.
"There's no way to protect a country completely from the possibility of one or several people coming in who are incubating a disease like Ebola," Toner said. "I wouldn't be surprised if there are others [patients]. But it's very, very unlikely that the disease could spread far," he added.
33-year-old Ashoka Mukpo, an NBC freelancer, reported symptoms of the disease on Wednesday and later discovered that he had contracted Ebola after working in Liberia. NBC says that they will fly Mukpo back to the US this week for treatment, which makes this the second confirmed case of Ebola in the US this week.
On Tuesday, Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola at a Dallas, Texas Presbyterian Hospital and health authorities have since quarantined four people who came in close contact with Duncan. Health officials had initially believed that just a handful of people had been exposed directly or indirectly to Duncan, but now think that up to 100 people may have had contact with him.
Initially, Duncan was sent back home with antibiotics when he attempted to get medical attention at the Texas Presbyterian Hospital even though he told the nurse that he had traveled from Liberia.
Because cases of Ebola are just beginning to arrive in the US, Toner credits doctors for doing their best to treat patients with the disease, but thinks that it's more important right now to control the disease where it already exists and for doctors to be aware of its symptoms.
"The best you can do is ask questions and look for people who are obviously ill," said Toner.
But for now, Toner says that it will be especially hard to contain the disease because of international travel.
"I don't think that putting an iron quarantine around West Africa would work, the more we quarantine people the more they try to get out and there's no way to lock down borders effectively," said Toner.
A Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. confirmed on Friday that they had admitted a patient with Ebola-like symptoms who had traveled from Nigeria into its facilities, but were still unsure whether or not the patient tested positive for the disease.
"In an abundance of caution, we have activated the appropriate infection control protocols, including isolating the patient," said Kerry-Ann Hamilton, a Howard University Medical spokeswoman in a statement. She added that the medical team is continuing to evaluate and monitor progress in close collaboration with the CDC and the Department of Health.
The current outbreak of Ebola, worst yet, started in southern Guinea and quickly spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. A separate outbreak, unrelated to the one in West Africa, is taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to the latest WHO estimates, the Ebola death toll has risen to over 3,300 since the epidemic started.
There is no officially approved medication for the disease. However, several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, are currently working on vaccines.
