First case of Ebola diagnosed in US: CDC

US President Barack Obama takes part in a briefing on the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on September 16, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. PHOTO | MANDEL NGAN |

What you need to know:

  • The patient is a man who became infected in Liberia and travelled to Texas.

WASHINGTON

The United States has diagnosed its first case of the deadly Ebola virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

The patient is a man who became infected in Liberia and travelled to Texas, where he was hospitalized with symptoms that were confirmed to be caused by Ebola, a CDC spokesman told AFP.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas said it had placed in strict isolation a person based on "symptoms and recent travel history".

The patient is the first to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, although a handful of US medical workers who were infected in West Africa have been flown back to the United States for treatment, and have recovered.

The world's largest outbreak of Ebola has infected 6,574 people across five West African countries and killed 3,091, according to the World Health Organization.