Dallas County authorities are preparing for more possible Ebola cases, as a second nurse who had treated the first victim of Ebola diagnosed on U.S. soil was infected with the virus. (Reuters) 
 
 Dallas County authorities are preparing for more possible Ebola cases, as a second nurse who had treated the first victim of Ebola diagnosed on U.S. soil was infected with the virus. (Reuters) 
 
 The hospital that treated Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan had to learn on the fly how to control the deadly virus, adding new layers of protective gear for workers in what became a losing battle to keep the contagion from spreading, a top official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. 
 
 “They kept adding more protective equipment as the patient [Duncan] deteriorated. They had masks first, then face shields, then the positive-pressure respirator. They added a second pair of gloves,” said Pierre Rollin, a CDC epidemiologist. 
 
 Despite the infection-control efforts, a nurse, Nina Pham, 26, somehow contracted Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas while caring for Duncan, a Liberian man who flew to the United States last month. Pham is being treated at the same hospital, and Tuesday she was reported to be in good condition. (On Wednesday, state officials announced that a second worker who cared for Duncan had also tested positive for the virus.) 
 
 CDC Director Thomas Frieden expressed regret Tuesday that his agency had not done more to help the hospital control the infection. He said that, from now on, “Ebola response teams” will travel within hours to any hospital in the United States with a confirmed Ebola case. Already, one of those teams is in Texas and has put in place a site-manager system, requiring that someone monitor the use of personal protective equipment. 
 
 “I wish we had put a team like this on the ground the day the first patient was diagnosed,” he said. “That might have prevented this infection.” 
 
 View Graphic Widespread concerns for Ebola epidemic in the United States 
 
 In the Duncan case, the CDC sent disease detectives to help track down people who might have been exposed, but the agency largely let the hospital handle its own infection control. 
 
 At least 76 workers were potentially exposed to Duncan in the hospital before he died Oct. 8, and they are being monitored daily for any signs of fever or other symptoms. 
 
 In one positive development, the 48 people who were potentially exposed to the virus by coming into contact with Duncan before his Sept. 28 hospitalization — including his fiancee — have remained symptom-free for more than two weeks and are close to being in the clear. The incubation period can in theory last as long as 21 days, but usually the symptoms flare within the first two weeks. 
 
 From the beginning of the Ebola crisis, disease experts and Frieden in particular have insisted that U.S. hospitals have the training and equipment to handle a highly contagious patient. On July 21, Frieden said that “Ebola poses little risk to the U.S. general population.” Any advanced hospital in the country has the capacity to isolate a patient, he said. “There is nothing particularly special about the isolation of an Ebola patient other than it’s really important to do it right,” he said at the time. 
 
 But the revelations this week suggest that Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was not fully prepared for the unfamiliar virus and had to adjust its protocols as Duncan’s illness progressed. The hospital did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 The CDC’s Rollin, who spent nearly three months in West Africa fighting the Ebola outbreak, and who has studied Ebola for three decades, flew to Dallas on Sunday and held intensive discussions with doctors and nurses at the hospital about how they had handled the Duncan case. 
 
 He said the hospital originally had no full-body biohazard suits equipped with respirators but now has about a dozen. Protocols evolved at the hospital while Duncan was being treated, he said: “Collecting samples, with needles, then you have to have two people, one to watch. I think when the patient arrived they didn’t have someone to watch.” 
 
 He said CDC specialists, along with two nurses from Emory University Hospital, are training health-care workers at the hospital. Rollin described the elaborate methods for removing waste from a room: Bag the trash and disinfect with bleach wipes. Put it in another bag and disinfect that bag. Then a buddy outside comes to the door with another bag into which the waste is deposited. That third bag is also disinfected. Then the trash is put in a cardboard container lined with a heavy-duty plastic bag, and that is taken outside of the unit by a contracted biosafety company that transports it to an incinerator. 
 
 “It’s a race between you and the virus, but the virus has a head start,” Rollin said. 
 
 How the nurse contracted Ebola remains a mystery. 
 
 “I’m doing well and want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers,” Pham said in a statement released by the hospital. 
 
 In a conference call with journalists late Tuesday, the labor organization National Nurses United read a statement that it said came from nurses at the hospital who “strongly feel unsupported, unprepared, lied to and deserted to handle their own situation.” 
 
 The statement alleged that guidelines for handling the Ebola patient were constantly changing, and that for two days after Duncan was admitted to isolation the nurses were given personal protective equipment that left their necks exposed. The organization did not name the nurses or say how many contributed to the statement. 
 
 Only four facilities in the country are specially designed for Ebola-type cases, including one at Nebraska Medical Center, where two people who contracted Ebola in West Africa have been treated. Mark Rupp, chief doctor for the center’s infectious-diseases division, said Tuesday he has received “countless” calls from health professionals worldwide who want to replicate Nebraska’s infection control procedures. 
 
 According to Rupp, the secret is simple: meticulous attention to detail. 
 
 First, health-care workers enter the “clean” locker room with scrubs, a mask and a pair of gloves. When they enter the “hot zone,” they don more protective gear: shoe covers, a second pair of gloves, an impenetrable full-body gown, a hood that covers the head and neck, a fitted respirator with a transparent shield. 
 
 An observer with a checklist monitors how workers put on and take off their equipment. 
 
 “It’s easy to make mistakes when you take off your gear,” Rupp said. 
 
 The Ebola news in the United States came amid warnings from the World Health Organization that the disease is spreading to new areas in West Africa and is still rampant in the capital cities of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. 
 
 Without a strong response, the virus could be infecting as many as 10,000 people a week in West Africa by Dec. 1, said Bruce Aylward, the WHO assistant director general who is overseeing the organization’s response to the epidemic. 
 
 He noted some signs of progress. Several of the original centers of the outbreak in Liberia and Sierra Leone have seen a drop in new cases, and this is the result of a “real change in behavior,” including changes in burial practices, Aylward said. 
 
 But the nature of Ebola requires that officials track down everyone who might potentially have been exposed. That’s the only way to keep it from flaring up again. It is not good enough, he said, to have just a little bit of Ebola. 
 
 “That’s like saying you’re only a little bit pregnant. This is Ebola. This is a horrible, unforgiving disease. You’ve got to get down to a level of zero,” Aylward said. 
 
 The latest WHO numbers show 8,914 suspected or confirmed cases of Ebola and 4,447 deaths. At a glance, such numbers might seem to suggest that half the people stricken with Ebola will survive the disease, but Aylward said that underestimates the true mortality rate, which is actually 70 percent. Many of the people who have Ebola, and are still fighting it, will yet succumb to the disease. 
 
 “We have had to carefully identify those individual patients for whom we could follow their entire course — when we do that carefully we find that 70% are dying and that this number is pretty robust across the 3 worst-affected countries,” Aylward wrote in an e-mail. 
 
 The trend in caseloads is “relatively flat,” with about 1,000 new cases a week for the past three or four weeks, he said. But the collection of data has been difficult in a region overwhelmed by the outbreak, and Aylward cautioned against drawing any conclusion from the numbers. 
 
 Phillip and Achenbach reported from Washington. Mark Berman, Brady Dennis and Lena Sun in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014, and rapidly became the deadliest occurrence of the disease since its discovery in 1976. 
 
 In fact, the epidemic killed five times more than all other known Ebola outbreaks combined. 
 
 More than 21 months on from the first confirmed case recorded on 23 March 2014, 11,315 people have been reported as having died from the disease in six countries; Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the US and Mali. 
 
 The total number of reported cases is about 28,637. 
 
 But on 13 January, 2016, the World Health Organisation declared the last of the countries affected, Liberia, to be Ebola-free. 
 
 The World Health Organization (WHO) admits the figures are underestimates, given the difficulty collecting the data. 
 
 There needs to be 42 days without any new cases for a country to be declared Ebola-free. 
 
 The outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal were declared officially over by the WHO in October 2014. Sierra Leone and Guinea both had much larger outbreaks and it took a little longer. Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free on 7 November 2015, Guinea followed in December. 
 
 Liberia has been the worst-hit, with more than 4,800 dead and 10,672 becoming infected. The WHO said that at the peak of transmission, during August and September 2014, Liberia was reporting between 300 and 400 new cases every week. 
 
 The epidemic seemed to abate and the outbreak in Liberia was declared over on 9 May 2015 - only to re-emerge seven weeks later when a 17-year-old man died from the disease and more cases were reported. The same happened in September, which is why the latest declaration of Liberia being Ebola-free, while welcome, should be treated with caution, say correspondents. 
 
 The WHO has warned that West Africa may see flare-ups of the virus. 
 
 How the virus spread 
 
 Researchers from the New England Journal of Medicine traced the outbreak to a two-year-old toddler, who died in December 2013 in Meliandou, a small village in south-eastern Guinea. 
 
 In March, hospital staff alerted Guinea's Ministry of Health and then medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). They reported a mysterious disease in the south-eastern regions of Gueckedou, Macenta, Nzerekore, and Kissidougou. 
 
 It caused fever, diarrhoea and vomiting. It also had a high death rate. Of the first 86 cases, 59 people died. 
 
 The WHO later confirmed the disease as Ebola. 
 
 Ebola death toll 
 
 Image copyright AP 
 
 Ebola outbreak: Key stories 
 
 "Biggest health challenge since Aids" 
 
 How not to catch Ebola 
 
 Why is Ebola so dangerous? 
 
 Ebola diary 
 
 Tracing the outbreak 
 
 Full special report 
 
 Disease spreads 
 
 The Gueckedou prefecture in Guinea, where the outbreak started, is a major regional trading centre and, by the end of March, Ebola had crossed the border into Liberia. It was confirmed in Sierra Leone in May. 
 
 In June, MSF described the Ebola outbreak as out of control. 
 
 Nigeria had its first case of the disease in July and, in the same month, two leading doctors died from Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone. 
 
 In August, the United Nations health agency declared an "international public health emergency", saying that a co-ordinated response was essential to halt the spread of the virus. 
 
 Senegal reported its first case of Ebola on 29 August. A young man from Guinea had travelled to Senegal despite having been infected with the virus, officials said. 
 
 By September, WHO director general Margaret Chan said the number of patients was "moving far faster than the capacity to manage them". 
 
 Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US, Thomas Frieden, said in October that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was unlike anything since the emergence of HIV/Aids. But Senegal managed to halt transmissions by mid October. 
 
 Authorities in Mali confirmed the death of the country's first Ebola patient, a two-year-old girl, on 25 October. The girl had travelled hundreds of kilometres by bus from Guinea through Mali showing symptoms of the disease, the WHO said. 
 
 An infected Islamic preacher from Guinea, who was initially diagnosed with a kidney problem, was treated at a clinic in Bamako. The preacher died a few days after entering the country. 
 
 Two health workers who cared for the preacher also died after contracting the virus. In total, Mali recorded six deaths from Ebola. By January 2015 however, the country was declared ebola-free. 
 
 Ebola outside West Africa 
 
 *In all but three cases the patient was infected with Ebola while in West Africa. Infection outside Africa has been restricted to health workers in Madrid and in Dallas. DR Congo also reported a separate outbreak of an unrelated strain of Ebola. 
 
 The first case of the deadly virus diagnosed on US soil was announced on 1 October. Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, who contracted the virus in Liberia before travelling to the US, died on 8 October. 
 
 He had not displayed symptoms of the disease until 24 September, five days after his arrival. Other people with whom he came into contact are being monitored for symptoms. 
 
 Two medical workers in Dallas, Texas, who treated Duncan tested positive for Ebola since his death but have both recovered. The second death on US soil was surgeon Martin Salia, from Sierra Leone. He was flown back to the United States in November and treated for Ebola at a hospital in Nebraska. But Dr Salia, who had US residency and was married to an American, died a short time later. 
 
 Spanish nurse Teresa Romero was the first person to contract the virus outside West Africa. She was part of a team of about 30 staff at the Carlos II hospital in Madrid looking after two missionaries who returned from Liberia and Sierra Leone after becoming infected. 
 
 Germany, Norway, France, Italy, Switzerland and the UK have all treated patients who contracted the virus in West Africa. 
 
 2014 outbreak in context 
 
 Ebola was first identified in 1976 and occurs in regions of sub-Saharan Africa. There are normally fewer than 500 cases reported each year, and no cases were reported at all between 1979 and 1994. 
 
 In August 2014, the WHO confirmed a separate outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. By the beginning of October there had been 70 cases reported and 43 deaths. 
 
 However, the outbreak in DR Congo was a different strain of the virus and unrelated to the epidemic in West Africa, which now dwarfs all previous outbreaks. 
 
 Past epidemics ||||| Story highlights DA's office: A "criminal matter" if Duncan "knowingly ... exposed" public to Ebola 
 
 Crews have begun cleaning the apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan stayed 
 
 County official: 4 quarantined were "very pleased" to move into 4-bedroom home 
 
 U.S. official: "The United States is well-equipped to stop Ebola in its tracks" 
 
 A Dallas apartment where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States had stayed is finally getting a thorough cleaning, days after the diagnosis left four people quarantined there with soiled towels and sweat-stained sheets from the Ebola patient. 
 
 After some delays, the first of three phases to clean the apartment began Friday afternoon. While the process will take days, at least sheets and towels that Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan used have been removed. 
 
 Also out are the four people -- the partner of the Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan , her 13-year-old son and her two 20-something nephews -- who'd been stuck there for days. 
 
 They had been ordered to stay inside the apartment until October 19. By that point, enough time should have passed to determine if any of them contracted Ebola or if they're in the clear. 
 
 Judge Clay Jenkins, director of the county's Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said Friday that Duncan's partner slept last night on a couch pillow on the living room floor. But now she and the others have a new place to call home in the meantime: a private 4-bedroom residence in Dallas, which was arranged with the help of someone in the local faith-based community. 
 
 "They were very glad to be going and very pleased when they got there," Jenkins said. "(One of them) got a big grin on his face, and he said, 'I wish somebody would get me a basketball.' So we're going to see if we can't take care of that." 
 
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 The move added to a busy day for the quartet, who until then had gotten little more than brief stops from a health official and were told not to go more than a few steps outside. On Friday, they were visited by a hazardous materials team wearing masks, boots and yellow protective gear, as seen in photos tweeted by Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed . A large tarp was laid out, and several oil-drum like containers were on site. 
 
 Some have criticized the fact that it took so long to start the process, given that health officials announced three days ago that Duncan had Ebola. At that time, four people Duncan had stayed with in the Texas city were ordered not to leave the apartment because of possible lingering effects of Duncan, from his clothes to toilets to silverware. 
 
 Additionally, the Dallas hospital where Duncan is being treated has come under fire for how it handled his first visit there eight days ago. 
 
 Duncan's partner, identified only as Louise, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that hospital medical staff were twice told that Duncan, who was suffering with fever and abdominal pain, had recently arrived from West Africa -- key information that could have been a tipoff for Ebola, yet was never properly relayed. Instead, he was released with an antibiotic only to come back by ambulance even sicker on Sunday. 
 
 Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged to reporters Friday that "there were missteps" in Dallas as to how Duncan's case was initially treated. But he also insisted that "there were a lot of things that went right and are going right." 
 
 And Fauci stressed that, while there may be a case here and there, what's happened with Ebola in West Africa -- where more than 3,400 people have died and public health infrastructures have become overwhelmed -- won't happen in the United States. 
 
 "Our health care infrastructure in the United States is well-equipped to stop Ebola in its tracks," Fauci said. 
 
 Official: 50 being monitored 
 
 Until this week, Ebola's impact on the United States has been confined to preemptive measures at airports and elsewhere to stop its spread, the deployment of U.S. military and other resources to West Africa to help corral the outbreak there, and the treatment of a select few Americans who contacted the virus in Africa and were flown back home to get well. 
 
 But Duncan changed all that. 
 
 He landed in Dallas on September 20, started feeling sick days later, then made his initial visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital late on September 25. He went back three days later and was quickly isolated, with a blood test confirmed he had Ebola on Tuesday. 
 
 If he gets healthy, Duncan could be in trouble: Some in Liberia have accused him of lying on a pre-flight questionnaire about his contact with Ebola sufferers, leading to threats of charges by authorities there and prompting the Dallas County district attorney's office to announce it is "looking into whether or not (he) knowingly and intentionally exposed the public to a deadly virus -- making this a criminal matter." 
 
 For now, though, any future legal battles are overshadowed by Duncan's fight for his life -- in isolation, in serious condition, at Texas Health Presbyterian. 
 
 No one he'd come in contact with has shown symptoms of Ebola, though officials were watching them -- 50 people in all -- just in case. 
 
 These 50 are people Duncan came in contact with while he was contagious. Monitoring means a public health worker visits the contacts twice a day to take temperatures and to ask if they are experiencing any symptoms. 
 
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 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Photos: The Ebola epidemic An Ebola survivor participates in a study in Monrovia, Liberia, on June 17, 2015. The country launched a five-year study to unravel the mystery of the long-term health effects that plague survivors of the viral disease. Since the epidemic started more than a year ago in a remote village in Guinea, more than 11,000 people have died, the vast majority in three West African nations, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization . And that number is believed to be low, since there was widespread under-reporting of cases, according to WHO. Hide Caption 1 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Women in Monrovia celebrate after the World Health Organization declared Liberia Ebola-free on May 9, 2015. Other cases have recurred since, however. Two people in Liberia have died of the disease since the end of June, just weeks after the WHO declared the nation free of the disease. Hide Caption 2 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A man walks past an Ebola awareness painting in Monrovia on March 22, 2015. Hide Caption 3 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division walk across the tarmac at Campbell Army Airfield before reuniting with their families at a homecoming ceremony March 21, 2015 in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 162 soldiers were deployed in Liberia, where they helped fight the spread of Ebola. Hide Caption 4 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Relatives weep for a loved one who it was believed died from Ebola, at a graveyard on the outskirts of Monrovia on March 11, 2015. Hide Caption 5 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Doctors Without Borders staffer Alex Eilert Paulsen watches as mattresses and bed frames burn at the Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville, Liberia, on January 31, 2015. The organization reduced its number of beds from 250 to 30 as gains were made in battling the virus. Hide Caption 6 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Pauline Cafferkey, a Scottish woman diagnosed with Ebola, is put on a plane in Glasgow, Scotland, on December 30, 2014. Cafferkey, a 39-year-old nurse who volunteered in Sierra Leone, was being transported to London for treatment. Hide Caption 7 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A child who survived the Ebola virus is fed by another survivor at a treatment center on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone, on November 11, 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health workers in Monrovia cover the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus on October 31, 2014. Hide Caption 9 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Kaci Hickox leaves her home in Fort Kent, Maine, to take a bike ride with her boyfriend on October 30, 2014. Hickox, a nurse, recently returned to the United States from West Africa, where she treated Ebola victims. State authorities wanted her to avoid public places for 21 days -- the virus' incubation period. But Hickox, who twice tested negative for Ebola, said she would defy efforts to keep her quarantined at home. Hide Caption 10 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health officials in Nairobi, Kenya, prepare to screen passengers arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on October 28, 2014. Hide Caption 11 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic U.S. President Barack Obama hugs Ebola survivor Nina Pham in the Oval Office of the White House on October 24, 2014. Pham, one of two Dallas nurses diagnosed with the virus, was declared Ebola-free after being treated at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. The other nurse, Amber Vinson (not pictured), was treated in Atlanta and also declared Ebola-free. Hide Caption 12 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health workers in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, transport the body of a person who is suspected to have died of Ebola on October 21, 2014. Hide Caption 13 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health workers bury a body on the outskirts of Monrovia on October 20, 2014. Hide Caption 14 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Garteh Korkoryah, center, is comforted during a memorial service for her son, Thomas Eric Duncan, on October 18, 2014, in Salisbury, North Carolina. Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian citizen, died October 8 in a Dallas hospital. He was in the country to visit his son and his son's mother, and he was the first person in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola. Hide Caption 15 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Boys run from blowing dust as a U.S. military aircraft leaves the construction site of an Ebola treatment center in Tubmanburg, Liberia, on October 15, 2014. Hide Caption 16 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Aid workers from the Liberian Medical Renaissance League stage an Ebola awareness event October 15, 2014, in Monrovia. The group performs street dramas throughout Monrovia to educate the public on Ebola symptoms and how to handle people who are infected with the virus. Hide Caption 17 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Ebola survivors prepare to leave a Doctors Without Borders treatment center after recovering from the virus in Paynesville, Liberia, on October 12, 2014. Hide Caption 18 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A man dressed in protective clothing treats the front porch of a Dallas apartment on October 12, 2014. The apartment is home to one of the two nurses who were diagnosed with Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who traveled to Dallas and later died from the virus. Hide Caption 19 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A woman crawls toward the body of her sister as a burial team takes her away for cremation October 10, 2014, in Monrovia. The sister had died from Ebola earlier in the morning while trying to walk to a treatment center, according to her relatives. Hide Caption 20 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A man digs a grave on October 7, 2014, outside an Ebola treatment center near Gbarnga, Liberia. Hide Caption 21 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A person peeks out from the Dallas apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, was staying on October 3, 2014. Hide Caption 22 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A girl cries as community activists approach her outside her Monrovia home on October 2, 2014, a day after her mother was taken to an Ebola ward. Hide Caption 23 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A health official uses a thermometer September 29, 2014, to screen a Ukrainian crew member on the deck of a cargo ship at the Apapa port in Lagos, Nigeria. Hide Caption 24 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Workers move a building into place as part of a new Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on September 28, 2014. Hide Caption 25 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Medics load an Ebola patient onto a plane at Sierra Leone's Freetown-Lungi International Airport on September 22, 2014. Hide Caption 26 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A few people are seen in Freetown during a three-day nationwide lockdown on September 21, 2014. In an attempt to curb the spread of the Ebola virus, people in Sierra Leone were told to stay in their homes. Hide Caption 27 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Supplies wait to be loaded onto an aircraft at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on September 20, 2014. It was the largest single shipment of aid to the Ebola zone to date, and it was coordinated by the Clinton Global Initiative and other U.S. aid organizations. Hide Caption 28 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A child stops on a Monrovia street September 12, 2014, to look at a man who is suspected of suffering from Ebola. Hide Caption 29 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic After an Ebola case was confirmed in Senegal, people load cars with household items as they prepare to cross into Guinea from the border town of Diaobe, Senegal, on September 3, 2014. Hide Caption 30 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A health worker wearing a protective suit conducts an Ebola prevention drill at the port in Monrovia on August 29, 2014. Hide Caption 31 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A burial team from the Liberian Ministry of Health unloads bodies of Ebola victims onto a funeral pyre at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia, on August 22, 2014. Hide Caption 32 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Dr. Kent Brantly leaves Emory University Hospital on August 21, 2014, after being declared no longer infectious from the Ebola virus. Brantly was one of two American missionaries brought to Emory for treatment of the deadly virus. Hide Caption 33 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic An Ebola Task Force soldier beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine on the West Point slum on August 20, 2014. Hide Caption 34 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Local residents gather around a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a back alley of the West Point slum on August 19, 2014. The boy was one of the patients that was pulled out of a holding center for suspected Ebola patients after the facility was overrun and closed by a mob on August 16. A local clinic then refused to treat Saah, according to residents, because of the danger of infection. Although he was never tested for Ebola, Saah's mother and brother died in the holding center. Hide Caption 35 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Workers prepare the new Ebola treatment center on August 17, 2014. Hide Caption 36 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Liberian police depart after firing shots in the air while trying to protect an Ebola burial team in the West Point slum of Monrovia on August 16, 2014. A crowd of several hundred local residents reportedly drove away the burial team and their police escort. The mob then forced open an Ebola isolation ward and took patients out, saying the Ebola epidemic is a hoax. Hide Caption 37 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A health worker disinfects a corpse after a man died in a classroom being used as an Ebola isolation ward August 15, 2014, in Monrovia. Hide Caption 38 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Aid worker Nancy Writebol, wearing a protective suit, gets wheeled on a gurney into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on August 5, 2014. A medical plane flew Writebol from Liberia to the United States after she and her colleague Dr. Kent Brantly were infected with the Ebola virus in the West African country. Hide Caption 39 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Members of Doctors Without Borders adjust tents in the isolation area in Kailahun on July 20, 2014. Hide Caption 40 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Boots dry in the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 20, 2014. Hide Caption 41 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Dr. Jose Rovira of the World Health Organization takes a swab from a suspected Ebola victim in Pendembu, Sierra Leone, on July 18, 2014. Hide Caption 42 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Red Cross volunteers disinfect each other with chlorine after removing the body of an Ebola victim from a house in Pendembu on July 18, 2014. Hide Caption 43 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA and test for the virus April 3, 2014, at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou, Guinea. Hide Caption 44 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health specialists work March 31, 2014, at an isolation ward for patients at the facility in southern Guinea. Hide Caption 45 of 45 
 
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 Dr. Beth Bell of the CDC said officials are casting a wide net. 
 
 "We have a low level of concern about the vast majority of these people that we're following," she said. 
 
 That sentiment was echoed Friday night by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, who pointed out "there is only one person" -- Duncan, who is in isolated in a hospital -- "that is actively showing" signs of Ebola. Only those showing symptoms of Ebola are contagious. 
 
 "We're a little anxious, but there is no fear in our eyes," Rawlings said of local residents. "We will be safe, and we will get this done in the appropriate way." 
 
 Ebola in spotlight elsewhere in U.S. 
 
 Duncan isn't the only person being talked about in the United States with real or possible Ebola. 
 
 Howard University Hospital in Washington has admitted a low-risk patient with symptoms "that could be associated with Ebola," hospital spokeswoman Kerry-Ann Hamilton said Friday. The patient, who was not named, recently traveled to Nigeria and presented with the symptoms upon his or her return, she said. The patient is in stable condition. 
 
 "In an abundance of caution, we have activated the appropriate infection control protocols, including isolating the patient," Hamilton said. "Our medical team continues to evaluate and monitor progress in close collaboration with the CDC and the Department of Health." 
 
 Officials in Georgia also said they isolated a man with flu-like symptoms who'd recently been in Africa shortly after his arrest early Friday for suspected drunken driving. But "so far all of his labwork is negative" and "we have no reason to believe that he has Ebola," Georgia Department of Public Health commissioner Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald said. 
 
 But there is one American confirmed with the virus: Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman for NBC News who was diagnosed in Monrovia on Thursday 
 
 Dr. Mitchell Levy said his son, Mukpo, remembers getting some fluid in his face while helping to disinfect a chair inside a clinic where he was filming. 
 
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 Mukpo, 33, a freelance cameraman for NBC News, started feeling achy and tired Wednesday, and he quarantined himself. A day later, a test at a Doctors Without Borders facility in Monrovia confirmed that he had Ebola. NBC News has said the entire team will return to the U.S. soon aboard a private charter plane. 
 
 Levy said that his son will be heading to Nebraska Medical Center, which is the same facility where Dr. Rick Sacra was recently treated. 
 
 Official: U.S. focusing on 'source countries' 
 
 As intense as the media attention is in the United States, the issues here are nothing compared to West Africa, where Ebola continues to spread through the living and the dead and where health facilities have often been unable to keep up with the outbreak. 
 
 The U.S. government has been involved in trying to help countries like Liberia, with more help possibly on its way. 
 
 Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday that the U.S. military could send as many as 4,000 troops to the Ebola-afflicted countries. About 200 U.S. troops are there now, and Washington had previously committed to sending 3,000 troops. 
 
 The U.S. troops will not treat patients, but will help establish health facilities and medical treatment units "so that the health care workers can do their jobs," Kirby said. 
 
 Paying attention to West Africa, whether it's getting Ebola patients well there or doing things to prevent infected people from leaving the country, is a national security priority for the United States, said Lisa Monaco, President Barack Obama's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser. 
 
 Monaco said Friday: "We are taking steps to address the source, the people coming from the source counties and we think those are the most effective steps we can take." ||||| On March 23, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the forested rural region of southeastern Guinea. The identification of these early cases marked the beginning of the West Africa Ebola epidemic, the largest in history. 
 
 Summary 
 
 The initial case, or index patient, was reported in December 2013. An 18-month-old boy from a small village in Guinea is believed to have been infected by bats. After five additional cases of fatal diarrhea occurred in that area, an official medical alert was issued on January 24, 2014, to the district health officials. The Ebola virus soon spread to Guinea’s capital city of Conakry, and on March 13, 2014, the Ministry of Health in Guinea issued an alert for an unidentified illness. Shortly after, the Pasteur Institute in France confirmed the illness as EVD caused by Zaire ebolavirus. On March 23, 2014, with 49 confirmed cases and 29 deaths, the WHO officially declared an outbreak of EVD. 
 
 Weak surveillance systems and poor public health infrastructure contributed to the difficulty surrounding the containment of this outbreak and it quickly spread to Guinea’s bordering countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone. By July 2014, the outbreak spread to the capitals of all three countries. This was the first time EVD extended out from more isolated, rural areas and into densely populated urban centers, providing an unprecedented opportunity for transmission. 
 
 On August 8, 2014, WHO declared the deteriorating situation in West Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which is designated only for events with a risk of potential international spread or that require a coordinated international response. Over the duration of the epidemic, EVD spread to seven more countries: Italy, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Later secondary infection, mainly in a healthcare setting, occurred in Italy, Mali, Nigeria, and the United States. 
 
 The scope of this outbreak, both in terms of cases and geography, can be attributed to the unprecedented circulation of EVD into crowded urban areas, increased mobilization across borders, and conflicts between key infection control practices and prevailing cultural and traditional practices in West Africa. Engaging local leaders in prevention programs and messaging, along with careful policy implementation at the national and global level, helped to eventually contain the spread of the virus and put an end to this outbreak. 
 
 Liberia was first declared Ebola-free in May 2014. Additional cases were found and treated, and the country was again declared Ebola-free in September 2015. After this, more cases were discovered again, until finally on January 14, 2016, Liberia announced it was Ebola-free and no additional cases have been detected since. 
 
 After an initial declaration in November 2015, Sierra Leone announced it was Ebola-free on March 7, 2016. A preliminary statement in December 2015 was retracted when additional cases were discovered in March and April and Guinea was finally declared Ebola-free in June 2016.[1] Two and a half years after the first case was discovered, the outbreak ended with more than 28,600 cases and 11,325 deaths. 
 
 Ebola in the United States 
 
 Overall, eleven people were treated for Ebola in the United States during the 2014-2016 epidemic. On September 30, 2014, CDC confirmed the first travel-associated case of EVD diagnosed in the United States in a man who traveled from West Africa to Dallas, Texas. The patient (the index case) died on October 8, 2014. Two healthcare workers who cared for him in Dallas tested positive for EVD. Both recovered. 
 
 On October 23, 2014, a medical aid worker who had volunteered in Guinea was hospitalized in New York City with suspected EVD. The diagnosis was confirmed by the CDC the next day. The patient recovered. 
 
 Seven other people were cared for in the United States after they were exposed to the virus and became ill while in West Africa, the majority of whom were medical workers. They were transported by chartered aircraft from West Africa to hospitals in the United States. Six of these patients recovered, one died.[2] 
 
 CDC Response 
 
 CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center in July 2014 to help coordinate technical assistance and disease control activities with partners. CDC personnel deployed to West Africa to assist with response efforts, including surveillance, contact tracing, data management, laboratory testing, and health education. CDC staff also provided support with logistics, staffing, communication, analytics, and management. 
 
 To prevent cross-border transmission, travelers leaving West Africa were screened at airports. Exit screening helped identify those at risk for EVD and prevent the spread of the disease to other countries. The United States also implemented enhanced entry screening for travelers coming from Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Mali by routing them to designated airports better able to assess travelers for risk.[3] 
 
 During the height of the response, CDC trained 24,655 healthcare workers in West Africa on infection prevention and control practices.[4] In the United States, more than 6,500 people were trained during live training events throughout the response. In addition, laboratory capacity was expanded in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone with 24 laboratories able to test for Ebola virus by the end of 2015.[5] 
 
 Impact 
 
 On March 29, 2016, the WHO lifted the PHEIC status on West Africa’s Ebola situation. The impact this epidemic had on the world, and particularly West Africa, is significant. A total of 28,616 cases of EVD and 11,310 deaths were reported in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. There were an additional 36 cases and 15 deaths that occurred when the outbreak spread outside of these three countries. The table below shows the distribution of cases and deaths in countries with widespread transmission and countries affected by the epidemic. 
 
 Countries with Widespread Transmission and other Countries Affected During the Epidemic Country Total Cases (Suspected, Probable, Confirmed) Laboratory Confirmed Cases Total Deaths Countries with Widespread Transmission Guinea 3,814 3,358 2,544 Liberia 10,678 3,163 4,810 Sierra Leone 14,124 8,706 3,956 Affected Countries Italy 1 1 0 Mali 8 7 6 Nigeria 20 19 8 Senegal 1 1 0 Spain 1 1 0 United Kingdom 1 1 0 United States 4* 4 1 Total 28,652 15,261 11,325 
 
 * While there were 11 patients with EVD in total treated in the United States, only four patients became ill after they arrived in the United States, either after exposure in West Africa or in a healthcare setting. 
 
 Graphs of reported cases, called epidemic curves, show the rate (incidence) of new, probable, and confirmed cases over the duration of the outbreak in the three West African countries with widespread transmission, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. 
 
 Healthcare workers caring for patients with EVD were among those at highest risk for contracting the disease. During the epidemic, Liberia lost 8% of its doctors, nurses, and midwives to EVD.[6] In addition to the devastating effects on the healthcare workforce in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, the Ebola epidemic severely impacted the provision of healthcare services and caused setbacks in the treatment and control of HIV, tuberculosis, measles, and malaria in these countries.[7] 
 
 The epidemic also had a great impact on children. Nearly 20% of all EVD cases occurred in children under 15 years of age, and an estimated 30,000 children became orphans during this epidemic. As funding and logistics previously dedicated to child vaccination campaigns were redirected to Ebola response or postponed to avoid public gatherings, routine immunizations decreased by 30%, further putting children at risk of getting vaccine-preventable diseases.[8],[9] 
 
 The epidemic has been estimated to cost a total of $4.3 billion USD.[10] Investments in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone dramatically decreased. Similarly, the countries experienced a substantial loss in private sector growth, decline in agricultural production leading to concerns about food security, and a decrease in cross-border trade as restrictions on movements, goods, and services increased.[11],[12],[13] 
 
 Current Guidance 
 
 While the spread of EVD in West Africa has been controlled, additional cases may continue to occur from time to time. However, because of ongoing surveillance and strengthened response capabilities, the affected countries now have the experience and tools to rapidly identify cases and limit the spread of the disease. 
 
 CDC no longer recommends that U.S. residents avoid nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone. Although there is believed to be no risk of EVD to travelers in these countries, travelers should, as usual, avoid contact with sick people, dead bodies, or blood and body fluids. ||||| Story highlights United Airlines is reaching out to passengers on flights with the patient 
 
 Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, is the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States 
 
 Duncan had a fever, was vomiting when he went to a hospital; he was sent home 
 
 Liberian man was admitted to the same Dallas hospital, isolated days later 
 
 Thomas Eric Duncan left Africa for the United States, by official accounts, a healthy man. But within days after his arrival in Texas, things changed for him, for the worst. 
 
 So who is Duncan, besides the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States ? When did he start to feel sick, and what happened to him next? And who did he come in contact with, in the meantime? 
 
 Who is Thomas Eric Duncan? 
 
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 He is a 42-year-old Liberian citizen, said a friend who knows him well but asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of his case. Duncan's Facebook page indicates that he's from the Liberian capital of Monrovia, where he attended E. Jonathan Goodridge High School. 
 
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 Why did he come to the United States? 
 
 To visit family and friends, according to the friend, who noted this was Duncan's first trip to America. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden has said that Duncan was "staying with family members who live in this country." 
 
 Duncan was visiting his son and his son's mother in Dallas, according to Wilfred Smallwood, Duncan's half-brother. 
 
 When did Duncan leave Liberia? 
 
 He departed the West African nation on September 19, Frieden says. 
 
 How did he get Ebola? 
 
 Authorities haven't said. 
 
 Witnesses say Duncan had been helping Ebola patients in Liberia. Liberian community leader Tugbeh Chieh Tugbeh said Duncan was caring for an Ebola-infected patient at a residence in Paynesville City, just outside Monrovia. 
 
 The New York Times reported Thursday that Duncan had direct contact with a pregnant woman stricken with Ebola on September 15, days before he left for the United States. Citing the woman's parents and Duncan's neighbors in Monrovia, Liberia, the newspaper said Duncan had helped carry the ailing woman home after a hospital turned her away because there wasn't enough space in its Ebola treatment ward. 
 
 A CDC spokesman told CNN on Wednesday that he hadn't seen the newspaper's report and couldn't comment. 
 
 Was he screened for Ebola before getting on the plane? 
 
 Yes, according to Binyah Kesselly, board chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority. 
 
 "The first screening was at the gate, before you get to the parking lot. The second time is before you enter the terminal building and the third is before you board the flight. At every point your temperature is scanned." 
 
 His temperature at those checkpoints was a consistent 97.3 degrees Fahrenheit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Thomas Frieden told reporters Thursday. 
 
 On a health screening questionnaire, Duncan answered "no" to questions about whether he had cared for a patient with the deadly virus and whether he had touched the body of someone who died in an area affected by the disease, Kesselly said. 
 
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 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Photos: The Ebola epidemic An Ebola survivor participates in a study in Monrovia, Liberia, on June 17. The country launched a five-year study to unravel the mystery of the long-term health effects that plague survivors of the viral disease. Since the epidemic started more than a year ago in a remote village in Guinea, more than 11,000 people have died, the vast majority in three West African nations, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization . And that number is believed to be low, since there was widespread under-reporting of cases, according to WHO. Hide Caption 1 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Women in Monrovia celebrate after the World Health Organization declared Liberia Ebola-free on May 9. Other cases have recurred since, however. Two people in Liberia have died of the disease since the end of June, just weeks after the WHO declared the nation free of the disease. Hide Caption 2 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A man walks past an Ebola awareness painting in Monrovia on March 22. Hide Caption 3 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division walk across the tarmac at Campbell Army Airfield before reuniting with their families at a homecoming ceremony March 21 in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 162 soldiers were deployed in Liberia, where they helped fight the spread of Ebola. Hide Caption 4 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Relatives weep for a loved one who it was believed died from Ebola, at a graveyard on the outskirts of Monrovia on March 11. Hide Caption 5 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Doctors Without Borders staffer Alex Eilert Paulsen watches as mattresses and bed frames burn at the Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville, Liberia, on January 31. The organization reduced its number of beds from 250 to 30 as gains were made in battling the virus. Hide Caption 6 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Pauline Cafferkey, a Scottish woman diagnosed with Ebola, is put on a plane in Glasgow, Scotland, on December 30, 2014. Cafferkey, a 39-year-old nurse who volunteered in Sierra Leone, was being transported to London for treatment. Hide Caption 7 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A child who survived the Ebola virus is fed by another survivor at a treatment center on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone, on November 11, 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health workers in Monrovia cover the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus on October 31, 2014. Hide Caption 9 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Kaci Hickox leaves her home in Fort Kent, Maine, to take a bike ride with her boyfriend on October 30, 2014. Hickox, a nurse, recently returned to the United States from West Africa, where she treated Ebola victims. State authorities wanted her to avoid public places for 21 days -- the virus' incubation period. But Hickox, who twice tested negative for Ebola, said she would defy efforts to keep her quarantined at home. Hide Caption 10 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health officials in Nairobi, Kenya, prepare to screen passengers arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on October 28, 2014. Hide Caption 11 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic U.S. President Barack Obama hugs Ebola survivor Nina Pham in the Oval Office of the White House on October 24, 2014. Pham, one of two Dallas nurses diagnosed with the virus, was declared Ebola-free after being treated at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. The other nurse, Amber Vinson (not pictured), was treated in Atlanta and also declared Ebola-free. Hide Caption 12 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health workers in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, transport the body of a person who is suspected to have died of Ebola on October 21, 2014. Hide Caption 13 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health workers bury a body on the outskirts of Monrovia on October 20, 2014. Hide Caption 14 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Garteh Korkoryah, center, is comforted during a memorial service for her son, Thomas Eric Duncan, on October 18, 2014, in Salisbury, North Carolina. Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian citizen, died October 8 in a Dallas hospital. He was in the country to visit his son and his son's mother, and he was the first person in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola. Hide Caption 15 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Boys run from blowing dust as a U.S. military aircraft leaves the construction site of an Ebola treatment center in Tubmanburg, Liberia, on October 15, 2014. Hide Caption 16 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Aid workers from the Liberian Medical Renaissance League stage an Ebola awareness event October 15, 2014, in Monrovia. The group performs street dramas throughout Monrovia to educate the public on Ebola symptoms and how to handle people who are infected with the virus. Hide Caption 17 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Ebola survivors prepare to leave a Doctors Without Borders treatment center after recovering from the virus in Paynesville, Liberia, on October 12, 2014. Hide Caption 18 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A man dressed in protective clothing treats the front porch of a Dallas apartment on October 12, 2014. The apartment is home to one of the two nurses who were diagnosed with Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who traveled to Dallas and later died from the virus. Hide Caption 19 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A woman crawls toward the body of her sister as a burial team takes her away for cremation October 10, 2014, in Monrovia. The sister had died from Ebola earlier in the morning while trying to walk to a treatment center, according to her relatives. Hide Caption 20 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A man digs a grave on October 7, 2014, outside an Ebola treatment center near Gbarnga, Liberia. Hide Caption 21 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A person peeks out from the Dallas apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, was staying on October 3, 2014. Hide Caption 22 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A girl cries as community activists approach her outside her Monrovia home on October 2, 2014, a day after her mother was taken to an Ebola ward. Hide Caption 23 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A health official uses a thermometer September 29, 2014, to screen a Ukrainian crew member on the deck of a cargo ship at the Apapa port in Lagos, Nigeria. Hide Caption 24 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Workers move a building into place as part of a new Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on September 28, 2014. Hide Caption 25 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Medics load an Ebola patient onto a plane at Sierra Leone's Freetown-Lungi International Airport on September 22, 2014. Hide Caption 26 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A few people are seen in Freetown during a three-day nationwide lockdown on September 21, 2014. In an attempt to curb the spread of the Ebola virus, people in Sierra Leone were told to stay in their homes. Hide Caption 27 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Supplies wait to be loaded onto an aircraft at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on September 20, 2014. It was the largest single shipment of aid to the Ebola zone to date, and it was coordinated by the Clinton Global Initiative and other U.S. aid organizations. Hide Caption 28 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A child stops on a Monrovia street September 12, 2014, to look at a man who is suspected of suffering from Ebola. Hide Caption 29 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic After an Ebola case was confirmed in Senegal, people load cars with household items as they prepare to cross into Guinea from the border town of Diaobe, Senegal, on September 3, 2014. Hide Caption 30 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A health worker wearing a protective suit conducts an Ebola prevention drill at the port in Monrovia on August 29, 2014. Hide Caption 31 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A burial team from the Liberian Ministry of Health unloads bodies of Ebola victims onto a funeral pyre at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia, on August 22, 2014. Hide Caption 32 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Dr. Kent Brantly leaves Emory University Hospital on August 21, 2014, after being declared no longer infectious from the Ebola virus. Brantly was one of two American missionaries brought to Emory for treatment of the deadly virus. Hide Caption 33 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic An Ebola Task Force soldier beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine on the West Point slum on August 20, 2014. Hide Caption 34 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Local residents gather around a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a back alley of the West Point slum on August 19, 2014. The boy was one of the patients that was pulled out of a holding center for suspected Ebola patients after the facility was overrun and closed by a mob on August 16. A local clinic then refused to treat Saah, according to residents, because of the danger of infection. Although he was never tested for Ebola, Saah's mother and brother died in the holding center. Hide Caption 35 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Workers prepare the new Ebola treatment center on August 17, 2014. Hide Caption 36 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Liberian police depart after firing shots in the air while trying to protect an Ebola burial team in the West Point slum of Monrovia on August 16, 2014. A crowd of several hundred local residents reportedly drove away the burial team and their police escort. The mob then forced open an Ebola isolation ward and took patients out, saying the Ebola epidemic is a hoax. Hide Caption 37 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A health worker disinfects a corpse after a man died in a classroom being used as an Ebola isolation ward August 15, 2014, in Monrovia. Hide Caption 38 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Aid worker Nancy Writebol, wearing a protective suit, gets wheeled on a gurney into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on August 5, 2014. A medical plane flew Writebol from Liberia to the United States after she and her colleague Dr. Kent Brantly were infected with the Ebola virus in the West African country. Hide Caption 39 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Members of Doctors Without Borders adjust tents in the isolation area in Kailahun on July 20, 2014. Hide Caption 40 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Boots dry in the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 20, 2014. Hide Caption 41 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Dr. Jose Rovira of the World Health Organization takes a swab from a suspected Ebola victim in Pendembu, Sierra Leone, on July 18, 2014. Hide Caption 42 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Red Cross volunteers disinfect each other with chlorine after removing the body of an Ebola victim from a house in Pendembu on July 18, 2014. Hide Caption 43 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA and test for the virus April 3, 2014, at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou, Guinea. Hide Caption 44 of 45 Photos: The Ebola epidemic Health specialists work March 31, 2014, at an isolation ward for patients at the facility in southern Guinea. Hide Caption 45 of 45 
 
 So where did he go next? 
 
 Authorities believe he was on two United Airlines flights -- Flight 951 from Brussels to Washington Dulles and Flight 822 from Washington Dulles to Dallas-Fort Worth -- during his trip, according to a spokesperson for the airline who did not want to be named. Passengers on those flights are not in danger, the spokesperson said. 
 
 The airline is voluntarily reaching out to passengers on those flights, an airline source said. 
 
 When did his Ebola symptoms appear? 
 
 "Four or five days" after his trip, according to the CDC's Frieden. 
 
 This doesn't mean that Duncan actually got infected with Ebola in the United States. The incubation period for the virus is two to 21 days, meaning that a person could be infected with the disease for up to three weeks before he or she show any signs of it. 
 
 When he did seek medical help? 
 
 After 10 p.m. Thursday, September 25. That's when Duncan first walked into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, according to a statement Wednesday. (A hospital official had earlier said that he'd gone to the hospital Friday.) 
 
 His friend said that Duncan had a fever and vomiting during this first visit to the Dallas hospital. The hospital, in a statement Wednesday, said he had a "low grade fever and abdominal pain." 
 
 He underwent basic blood tests but wasn't screened for Ebola, said Dr. Edward Goodman from the Dallas hospital. Duncan left the medical facility after being given antibiotics and a pain reliever, his friend said. 
 
 "His condition did not warrant admission," the hospital said. "He also was not exhibiting symptoms specific to Ebola." 
 
 Were flags raised that Duncan might have Ebola? 
 
 After being asked by a nurse, Duncan did say that he'd traveled from Africa, said Dr. Mark Lester, executive vice president of Texas Health Presbyterian's parent company. 
 
 But that detail -- which might have raised an alarm that Duncan might have Ebola, since Liberia is one of the countries hardest hit by the virus -- was not "fully communicated" to the medical team, according to Lester. 
 
 When was he admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital? 
 
 On Sunday. 
 
 The friend -- frustrated and feeling hospital staff wasn't doing enough -- then reportedly called the CDC about Duncan's case. The CDC told the friend to call Texas' Department of Health, with the message eventually getting to the hospital. 
 
 This description, however, runs counter to what Texas Health Presbyterian said in its statement Wednesday. By the time Duncan arrived via ambulance, "EMS had already identified potential need for isolation," the hospital said. "The hospital followed all suggested CDC protocols at that time." 
 
 Who did the patient come into contact with in the meantime? 
 
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 Given the timetable outlined by Frieden, that leaves a few days between when Duncan began to show signs of Ebola and when he was hospitalized. This is significant because someone with Ebola is only contagious when they are symptomatic. And, obviously, there are more safeguards to prevent infection in a medical environment than outside of it. 
 
 Health officials are reaching out to as many as 100 people who may have had contact with Duncan, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services said Thursday. These are people who are still being questioned because they may have crossed paths with the patient either at the hospital, at his apartment complex or in the community. 
 
 "Out of an abundance of caution, we're starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient's home," spokeswoman Carrie Williams said. "The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection." 
 
 The number of direct contacts who have been identified and are being monitored right now is "more than 12," a federal official told CNN on Thursday. "By the end of the day, we should have a pretty good idea of how many contacts there are," the official said. 
 
 That number includes five students who attended four different schools in the area, according to Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles. 
 
 Three students were also pulled from an elementary school in the Richardson Independent School District on Thursday after health officials determined they may have been in contact with Duncan. 
 
 They have no symptoms, but "have been removed from school in order to be monitored," the school district said. 
 
 It's not known yet whether they or anyone else got Ebola, which only spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids, because of Duncan. This includes members of the ambulance crew that transported him to the hospital; none of had shown symptoms, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Tuesday. 
 
 How is Duncan doing? 
 
 "All right," according to his friend, who has spoken with Duncan frequently. "He is in pain." 
 
 The friend, who talked with Duncan as recently as Wednesday afternoon, said that Duncan hasn't eaten in a week. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital spokeswoman Candace White said that Duncan is in serious condition at her Dallas hospital. ||||| DALLAS (AP) — A Texas health care worker who was in full protective gear while providing hospital care for an Ebola patient who later died has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. If the preliminary diagnosis is confirmed, it would be the first known case of the disease being contracted or transmitted in the U.S. 
 
 FILE - A sign points to the entrance to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where U.S. Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was being treated, in this Oct. 8, 2014 file photo,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Meanwhile, a top federal health official said the health care worker's Ebola diagnosis shows there was a clear breach of safety protocol and all those who treated Thomas Eric Duncan are now considered to be potentially exposed. 
 
 Dr. Daniel Varga, of the Texas Health Resources, said during a news conference Sunday that the worker wore a gown, gloves, mask and shield while they provided care to Duncan during his second visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Varga did not identify the worker and says the family of the worker has "requested total privacy." 
 
 Varga says the health care worker reported a fever Friday night as part of a self-monitoring regimen required by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said another person also remains in isolation, and the hospital has stopped accepting new emergency room patients. 
 
 Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas. 
 
 "We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement Sunday. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread." 
 
 But Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Sunday raised concerns about a possible breach of safety protocol and told CBS' "Face the Nation" that among the things CDC will investigate is how the workers took off that gear — because removing it incorrectly can lead to a contamination. 
 
 "I think the fact that we don't know of a breach in protocol is concerning, because clearly there was a breach in protocol." Frieden said. "We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients ... We'll conduct a full investigation of what happens before health workers go in, what happens when they're there, and what happens in the taking out, taking off their protective equipment because infections only occur when there's a breach in protocol." 
 
 Health officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures. They said people who had contact with the health care worker after symptoms emerged will be monitored based on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus. 
 
 Officials said they also received information that there may be a pet in the health care worker's apartment, and they have a plan in place to care for the animal. They do not believe the pet has signs of having contracted Ebola. 
 
 Judge Clay Jenkins, Dallas County's top administrative official, said the unidentified health care worker is a "heroic" person who "was proud to provide care to Mr. Duncan." He said the health care worker's family has requested privacy because they are "going through a great ordeal." 
 
 More than 4,000 people have died in the ongoing Ebola epidemic centered in West Africa, according to World Health Organization figures published Friday. Almost all of those deaths have been in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. 
 
 Ebola spreads through close contact with a symptomatic person's bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen. Those fluids must have an entry point, like a cut or scrape or someone touching the nose, mouth or eyes with contaminated hands, or being splashed. The World Health Organization says blood, feces and vomit are the most infectious fluids, while the virus is found in saliva mostly once patients are severely ill and the whole live virus has never been culled from sweat. 
 
 Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas. Duncan grew up next to a leper colony in Liberia and fled years of war before later returning to his country to find it ravaged by the disease that ultimately took his life. 
 
 Duncan arrived in Dallas in late September, realizing a long-held ambition to join relatives. He came to attend the high-school graduation of his son, who was born in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast and was brought to the U.S. as a toddler when the boy's mother successfully applied for resettlement. 
 
 The trip was the culmination of decades of effort, friends and family members said. But when Duncan arrived in Dallas, though he showed no symptoms, he had already been exposed to Ebola. His neighbors in Liberia believe Duncan become infected when he helped a pregnant neighbor who later died from it. It was unclear if he knew about her diagnosis before traveling. 
 
 Duncan had arrived at a friend's Dallas apartment on Sept. 20 — less than a week after helping his sick neighbor. For the nine days before he was taken to a hospital in an ambulance, Duncan shared the apartment with several people.
– Recent news on the Ebola outbreak paints a bleak portrait of the disease by numbers: 70%: The current death rate from the disease, the World Health Organization again confirmed today. That's an increase from the initial 50% cited by WHO, the AP reports. 10,000: The number of new Ebola cases WHO says are possible each week, starting at some point in the next two months. In other words, the effort to grapple with the disease needs a big boost within 60 days, says an official. 9: The number of workers for another health organization, Doctors Without Borders, who have died fighting the outbreak, the AP reports. An additional seven have been infected. 70: The number of health workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who took care of the first US Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the virus. One of them is the nurse who's now suffering from the disease. $500,000: The potential cost of care for Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who picked up Ebola in Liberia. His friends set up a crowdfunding campaign last week to help pay his bills, the Fiscal Times reports; you can contribute here. $32.6 billion: The possible economic toll the disease could take by the end of next year, the New York Times reports. The number comes from the World Bank and refers to a situation in which "the epidemic spreads into neighboring countries" around its center in West Africa. 4,447: The total number of deaths from the disease, per WHO, which says the total number of likely cases is 8,914. There's one non-grim number to add to the mix: $25 million, which is what Mark Zuckerberg and his wife are donating to the fight.