Concerns, questions as Dallas becomes ‘ground zero’ for Ebola in U.S.

The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States - a man being treated in a Dallas, Texas, hospital - has sparked worries that the virus that has killed thousands in West Africa could spread in one of the country’s largest metropolitan regions. But there is also a sense of confidence in a city that often brims with bravado and has some of the top hospitals in the country, as well as a public health system that has managed incidents such as a major outbreak of West Nile virus. That expertise should help prevent an outbreak of the disease, which has killed more than 3,000 people in West Africa, the newspaper said. The arrival of Ebola in Texas set off a flood of conversation among Dallas residents about being at ground zero for the disease’s emergence in the United States.

Time for panic? Absolutely not.

a Dallas Morning News editorial

Health experts were observing up to 18 people, including five Dallas-area schoolchildren, who had contact with the first person to be diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus in the United States, officials said on Wednesday. The first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in a U.S. hospital was evaluated initially and turned away, a critical missed opportunity that could result in others being exposed to the deadly virus, infectious disease experts said. Thomas Eric Duncan told health care workers on his initial hospital visit that he had recently been in an area affected by the deadly disease, but that information was not widely shared. It was only on Duncan’s second visit on Sunday, however, that the hospital learned the patient had recently arrived in the United States from Liberia and admitted him to an isolation unit.

It’s just sad that no one cared about Ebola when it was in Africa but now everyone’s eyes are open because it’s here.

Erika Rodriguez, 23, of Dallas