stay right where you r. we want to update you on what's going on in hong kong right now, tens of thousands are still gathering in the capital here. and it's causing concern for china. china can't win on this. i'm telling you, it account not win. this is a fox news alert, breaking ebola news tonight, a north texas hospital has confirmed a patient has the deadly virus. it's the first case known to be in the united states. >> reporter: dana, good afternoon to you, in about a half an hour's time, the centers for disease control tom freeden will announce the very first case of ebola that arrived in the united states that did not alive in one of those very sophisticated medevac planes. four patients, maybe five now have been brought into the united states via medevac from places like liberia and sierra

leon. there's another patient at nih who may who may not have the disease. but this would be the very first case of a person traveling from west africa on a commercial air liner to land in the united states and get sick once they were here in the u.s. the patient is in a dallas hospital and this is dallas health presbyterian hospital, in the northern part of dallas, arrived from liberia in the last couple of days, it's a man who apparently was asimple tom mattic, he did not show signs of the ebola infection which is a good thing, because if the patient with ebola is asymptomatic, the likelihood of there being transmission is greatly reduced. of course they're taking no precautions in dallas, the man is in strict isolation, and a go team for the centers of disease control will be leaving in the next few hours, three to four

scientists to help with isolation, to help with infection control and to help with treating this patient. it's not known if this patient will stay in dallas or be medevaced to one of those high security facilities. so it's still unfolding here, but what we do know is this is the very first time someone has walked walked off of a plane and there's been a lot of suspected cases but to the very first time someone was confirmed to have walked off a plane and became infected with ebola here in the u.s. last night president obama was asked to own up to underestimating isis but took no personal responsibility, he chose to blame the intel community instead. >> i think the head of our intelligence community, jim clamor has admitted that they underestimated what took place in syria. >> one senior intelligence official tells the "new york

times," quote, some of us were pushing the reporting, but the white house just didn't pay attention to it. they were preoccupied with other cris crises, this just wasn't a big priority. greg, i want to ask you something about john hayward who writes for human defense. he writes about the communication of the white house, which is basically on day three of trying to explain what the presidentment or didn't mean. the white house said that the president's intent was not tot blame the intel community. when your damage control needs damage control, you're in a bad place, there is a huge state of confusion. not a huge, but a significant one. >> he really is the least inspirational boss you could ever have, because all positive achievements, it's in his possession, and whenever there's anything negative, somehow it fall into your lap. he's like a success bid. he captures all the glory, and the gore to goes to everybody .

think of this in a priority standpoint. if he was warned about something else, like vanishing sea ice, or perhaps the treatment of a fellow professor. he would not ignore three warnings in any of those instances because some warnings matter more than others, when those warnings reflect the fwlaus flaws of the united states, it's -- >> there was somebody who was trying to raise awareness and then he ended up resigning, and he gave an interview. michael flynn left in august and he gave an interview basically explaining this. the intel community, their responsibility is to report, and analyze and then the president, the commander in chief, whoever that is, their responsibility is to choose what to do with that information. so if the president is saying that they got it wrong, but the intel community didn't write a

before month, a month ago that isis was jv, that was the president's assessment. so after he read or didn't read the presidents daily briefing, he chose to not act and he also chose to characterize them as jv. >> we know on tape that the intel community has spoken of the threat of isis as recently as february, but since then, president obama or right around the same time he had called them the jv team. so then you have to ask, so what has the president done? yes, he's blamed, but he's also named. so to stay that he didn't mean to blame the intelligence community, he went so far as to blame james clapper, blaming and naming is enough to garner responsibility. so you have to ask, the buck stops here or pass the buck, which one of these -- there's only go ways of handling responsibility, especially being the commander in chief, the buck

stops here, or does it pass the buck? wh what's the legacy of president obama and i think this is just another example of passing the buck, it never stops at the white house. >> and i wanted to ask you about this, because presumably you have been in oval office at times, preparing president carter for a big interview, and you know you do the mock questions, i pretend i'm steve acro kroft and we go back and forth. if the president has that as his answer, maybe they even suggested that he use that answer. but doesn't it strikes you as strange that given what eric just said gabout the legacy of the president, or the belief that he assigns blame and doesn't take any responsibility for himself. do you think that answer would have raised a little bit of concern and they wouldn't be in the position now of having to clean it up several days later. >> but clapper did say they

underestimated. but the interesting thing to me is that i'm not absolving obama here of anything. but all these quotes from these former intelligence community people. >> the one in the "new york times" article today was a current. >> and then we have got these former intelligence people are all coming out and saying things about the president. my question -- >> i just told you about one, the defense intelligence agency general, michael flynn. >> the president has been telling us for a little over 2 1/2 years that al qaeda is on the run. then you have a reporting from tom joycelyn who walks you through how isis is really al qaeda. and they used this metaphor of metastasizing, that isis is a cancer and that al qaeda metastasized.

but you are very familiar with cancer as a metaphor, if it m s metastasizes, that's an even bigger problem. >> if you have that in more distal parts of the body, then you have a more severe diagnosis. regardless of who the president had working for him. he was told this information and he chose not to act. he has multiple time where is he missed opportunities to take key significant terrorists out and didn't do it. for example, we had information that we had one of the bombmakers in syria, he could have taken out that compound, where he was training people to make undetectable bombs to use on u.s. and european aircraft. again, a missed opportunity. he knew about this. so the fact that he's now trying to blame clapper and others saying he wasn't aware, we know that's not the truth.

because a new government account -- president obama has only attended 42% of his daily intelligence briefings. he never misses a golf outing, but these are things he should be paying attention to, especially during this heightened state of terror. it's just another one of those missed opportunities. >> i read up on all the terror reports. it's fascinating, i'll pass them on to you. >> if you're telling me the president of the united states and the intelligence community angtd the military knew that this bombmaker who has been highly sought, and was known to be in that compound, then i'll go over to your side. i do not believe that for one single minute. >> i want to respond to bob, because you're saying why didn't anyone speak up when they have this information? why didn't anybody say anything about the syria issue or the isis issue or the white house briefs or benghazi or doj? the white house is always off

duty. how is that possible? how come nobody says anything, it's because the media itself is off duty. there is no reason to actually do anything because you're going to get -- the media will not back you up. the media will always back up president obama so that nobody bothers to question him. he's got them in their possibility, so he gets away with everything. >> these kind of allegations, there 1,000 ways to get them out in the media. >> bob, this is really incredible. >> can i say just how stupid this sounds that we're going to sit around here and said that we knew about it but the 39 didn't know about it? >> apparently he did know, but the people who chose to tell him that information, in one case refused to reskin and they could have said something. >> you can't say the man didn't know about isis, we have heard about it for years, they're reporting they have told him about it for years, you can't

say he didn't know, and if he did know, and if clapper was failing on the job, then he should have gotten rid of him. >> are you going to answer my question, why didn't some of these other people resign in protest? >> you're putting too much responsibility on people whose job it is in the intelligence world to analyze and report. that's all their responsible to do. they're not supposed to go out and say i'm resigning because the president is derelict in his duty. >> that pie's what you're sayin this guy did. >> because it got so bad that he had to leave. i thi here's a question i have, eric, let me ask you, if president obama doesn't seem too concerned that he's blaming the intel community, doesn't seem to be too concerned that they got it wrong. do we have a more fundamental problem of intel and assessment, like when it comes to iran or

other places where we are looking at potential trouble? >> you know, i don't know. i hope not. i think the intel community is doing their job. i think they're coming one the intelligence that we need to keep us safe and then, like as you just point out, and then what? so they develop the information, they hand it over and then there's decisions that have to be made. and that's where the breakdown is happening, is the decision, they're reporting it. >> that's why we elected him president of the united states, its his call. >> he has not been aggressive on terror. >> he's not going to be, because he's not comfortable with it. >> we're going to arm iran under president obama's legacy. they will have a bomb before he leaves office. >> they won't have one. let me ask you a question, former fbi counter terrorism task force member said, quote, obama administration is more concerned about being politically correct than the safety of americans, one of the most outrageous rat filled lines

i have ever heard. do you believe that? >> yes, i do. because he has actually expressed a desire to quell this hiypothesized backlash american against any kind of threats. he's always been concerned about islam phobia. so the idea that pc trumps safety, he would almost agree with it because that's hiss belief. there's an american potential for backlash and that might affect our afe feeppeal worldwim not saying he's not interested in our safety, but he is more interested, his priority has always been about our reaction to the external threat as opposed to the external threat. >> you want to know why nobody speaks up? he speaks up, he's an a fbi

anti-terrorism task force member, he speaks up and you condemn him for that. >> i will trash him until the stay he dies. then i e'll trash his grave. i heard what greg said, but wait a second, you all are agreeing with the fact that the president of the united states being politically correct is more important than the safety of the american people? >> i'm going to tell you, unintentionally he makes us les safe. >> i think it's intentional. if you don't act, there are consequences for a decision not to act. the consequence in this case is that we are now embroiled in a situation with isis that marie harp, the state department spokesperson was even surprised by their own system. >> not acting is a decision. there are consequences for it. >> can i add on to that? in this respect we will be less safe under obama, i'm going to

specifically say, in this world, lifting sanctions on iran, allowing them to develop a bomb will down the road prove that we have become less safe because of president obama's policies. >> and when you know where hi high ---your intelligence briefings, you prefer to get them in writing, you have plausible deniability, that is an intentional act that is not making americans safer. >> putting political correctness above the safety of americans. remember everybody at this table who said that, i want to remind you -- >> we're waiting on an update from the cdc on the first ebola case confirmed in the u.s.

a mu

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. fox news alert, we're awaiting a news conference from the cdc on the first patient diagnosed with ebola in the u.s. we'll have that briefing to you as soon as it begins. but today, the muslim convert accused of beheading a co-worker and attempting to behead another was charged in oklahoma, first-degree murder and assault, but no terror charges. last night alton nolen's sister claims her brother wasn't a terrorist. >> he grew up in a christian household, i just think he might have got involved with the wrong people, you know, the wrong people, the wrong things, and basically corrupting his mind with, you know, with just things that are unhuman, and i just don't understand that, i really don't. i honestly don't believe it's an act of terrorism.

>> and the fed's lack of using -- and last night on the kelley file, a texas reporter laid out another possible link to terror. >> he went to the same mosque as the 20th hijacker from 9/11. i spoke with mohammad at the islamic center of oklahoma city and he confirmed the connection between -- there wasn't a direct connection between the two people, but he confirmed that both of those terrorist s went o the same mosque. >> zacarias mussaoui? >> yes. >> now we have a link to a mosque that's connected with terror. and this one, on the facebook page, i read this. he had this posted. islam will rule the world. >> i don't know, it seems pretty clear cut in terms of what his intentions were and what i'd

yo ideology and beliefs he had because he was trying to convert people at his workplace. but he was fired that day. so that muddies the water a little bit. they can pursue those charges at the state level right now, so nothing falls between the cracks, but it should not prevent them from calling this what it is. they failed to act with major nadal hassan and bowed to pressure from the department of justice to call it work place violence. they should learn from the past and rigorously investigate this, there's so much out there that we're already aware of, not so much getting computer records, but talking to the contacts that could have radicalized him. >> the tsarnaev brothers said the same thing. >> can i ask you where the department of justice is? eric holder weighed in on ferguson. why is he not weighing in on this one? >> i have no idea.

i would say, i don't know, i assume this guy's probably a terrorist or sympathetic terrorist, but linking the facts that he went through a mosque with the 20th bomber, john wilkes booth went to the same church as lincoln did. >> that's one facet. >> he yelled out al akbar right before he beheaded the woman. he's got a bier of allah akbar written over the statue of liberty on his facebook page too. if this isn't terrorism, i don't know what it is. can we agree on that? >> i have a question. because i was curious about the process. so he's going to be charged and then he's going to be arraigned? >> he's going to be arraigned on the designation of workplace violence or terrorism? is it fluid? or does it have to be determined before the arraignment. >> in particular right now he's just facing the standard state

charges of first-degree murder which in that state carries the death penalty. so the penalty we would receive under either designation would be the same. nevertheless, they're not precluded from pursuing federal charges concurrently or even consecutively with the state charges. >> if they went vehemently toward this as terror, would what would that say to people who -- >> i don't think that matters to the people doing it. because this is a virus that's been around since the beginning of time. i actually feel bad for the mother because she actually believes what she's saying, this is the predatory an nilism of the loser, and you have seen it in isis, you see it in school shootings and stalkers, the problem with radical islam is

that indulge s mass son againy. is the only solution to this is you treat this like a spree killing, to suppress these copy cats, you charge them, you execute them and then you forget them. losers are incited by the attention we give them and the immortality given by the media. a patient in the u.s. has been diagnosed with the deadly ebola virus. we'll have that for you live in just a few minutes, stick around.

this is a fox news alert. we are awaiting a news conference from the cdc news conference in atlanta on that first patient diagnosed with

ebola. do you know what the patient was doing in west africa before he came here or she came here? >> reporter: it is a he, we can confirm that and the patient was in liberia, we don't know a whole lot about the patient, we do know that apparently it's not a medical worker, this would be a civilian, who boarded a flight from liberia, ended up in dallas, don't know if it came through new york or dallas or went through a european hub. landed in dallas, apparently was asimple t simple tosimple tom m. high fever, vomiting, some of the classic symptoms of ebola. the person presented itself at the presbyterian hospital in the north part of dallas, and based on the travel history, and hospitals around the country have been flagged by the cdc, warned by the cdc, that any time someone comes in with symptoms like that, asked where they have

been, when somebody travels from liberia, they put him in isolation. the isolation in dallas is not the isolation at emery hospital, where three patients with ebola were being treated, or in nebraska or at the nih medical facility up in frederick, maryland. maybe that person only stayed there for a short time before they're medevaced to another one of these facilities. but the centers for disease control will be sending a go team to help the hospital take care of this patient. >> i have two questions, do we know if this person is a u.s. citizen? could you explain a little bit if you know about the incubation period, the period between when he may have contracted ebola and now? how long a period is that, about 12 days, i think? >> yeah, we don't know the nationality at this point.

we can assume either liberian or american or liberian-american. as far as the incubation period goes is all the way from three days to three weeks. so it's likely that this person probably would have been affected sometime within the last week or ten days or so. >> my concern is basically what other people could have been exposed, right? because it is a little bit unclear, the way you become symptomatic, the manifestation of symptoms, someone could not be feeling well but could still be contagious because in a quick period of time, they start to express with vomiting and other symptoms. has everyone been notified on that plane? does the cdc have protocol in place for possible exposure?

>> the centers for disease control, the dallas county health and human services department will all be looking in to trace the route that he took from liberia here to the united states and they will be contacting many if not all of the people who traveled on the aircraft with him and any or all people who were in contact with him once he arrived in the united states. you can be asimple tom mattic or just start to show signs of a little bit of malaise with ebola and in a number of hours suddenly be very, very sick. and one thing we did learn from the doctor who was just released from the nebraska medical center, who was working for simusa in liberia, he was an obstetrician, and he got very, very sick with ebola. they haven't fracked down the origin of that ebola yet. one of his pregnant patients,

either a cesarean section and blood probably would have gotten on to the doctor's hands, probably his knownodes, eyes, s just showing no signs of disease is not a guarantee that you're not going to pass it to anybody. >> so i have to put myself there, if i'm in that hospital or around that hospital, i think i would be very, very nervous. have they locked that place down or are they going to lock it down until the cdc gives us an all clear? >> they haven't locked the hospital down, but they have put the patient in strict isolation, but you bring up a very good point, eric, because all of the other ebola patients that have come into the united states came in on very sophisticated medevac flights, phoenix air carrying that centers for disease control containment they walked out in tiebeck suits with respirators to make sure they didn't pass the virus on to

anybody. the person as sick as they were, would have been in contact with the receptionist, probably a triage nurse, other doctors and nurses who would have come in to take blood pressures and vital signs, even though they asked the crucial question, have you travelled to west africa, that person would have come in contact with others at the hospital and i'm sure they're looking at that chain of events as this person went into the isolation unit, because you're just not ready for it, it comes in out of the blue. >> so all the people who have treated this gentleman, i can't imagine they're going to allow him to go home and possibly spread something that we won't know immediately whether they have contacted it or contracted it as well. do we know what we're going to do with all the hospital people that have come in contact with him? >> reporter: we don't just yet, though isolation probably for a number of days is a good idea. we will learn more about that because an infectious disease expert from the hospital is

going to join the cdc on the television, along with zachary thompson who is the head of health and human services in dallas. because it was highly suspect, they have been taking a lot of precautions to make sure this patient is well isolated. here's the interesting thing, when i talked to the centers for disease control this morning, they said it appears to be a low risk case, like the one in mt. sinai hospital in new york city, many of them simply mad malaria. you have to get it through a mosquito, but throughout the day, suddenly started getting rumblings about the mixed message about this guy's story, maybe the risk was a little higher. my spine started tingling thinking we better get over to the cdc because this is going to turn out to be the very first case of ebola walking into the united states, if you will.

>> ill didn't really walk in, it flew in, didn't it? isn't the one place that they should be most worried about airplanes, given the fact that there's very little fresh air on airplanes and it's repsychled on a regular basis? >> obviously if you have ever gotten sick on an airplane from just the common cold or the flu, you know if you're in proximity, if you're sick and you're in proximity to a number of people, there's a good chance that a couple of them at least will probably come down be whatever you had. but ebola is actually not that easily trance trangz missable. you have to come in contact with a lot of saliva, mucus, vomiting, diarrhea, blood. they do know how to control ebola. and here's a very good example of that.

niger niger nigeria, they believe that the outbrack in nigeria -- they also believe that senegal, because of quick action forestalled and avoided a possible outbreak of ebola there. so they do know how to control it. they do now hoe to either take care of a patient or let it burn itself out. the problem is in those three big west african country where is ebola is raging, there's no way to contain it because there's so much interaction between people. >> what do we expect to hear from the cdc, what kind of questions do you think they can answer or will it just be a lot of we don't know, we're checking and we'll get back to you? >> i think it will be obviously the background of this person, were they living in liberia, were they visiting liberia, what was the airline they flew over on. and it's a good bet that it could be american airlines,

because dallas is a hub and atlanta is a hub. but it could be any one of a number of other carriers as well. probably have you been in contact with people who are on the plane or planes with them. have you been in contact with people who he might have been in contact with as eric was talking about prior to and upon his arrival at the hospital? will the patient be staying here in dallas, or will they be taken to a high containment facility in nebraska or frederick, maryland, and then what about the prundence of maintaining regular flights between those countries and america. there are precautions in place to minimize the risk. but i think this will open up thisline of questioning as well. british airways stopped flights for a month. they may still be stopped, from west africa to the united kingdom. so there may be some airlines that are considering similar

moratoriums on flights, though i haven't heard anything at this point. >> john, one of the, i guess, good news about ebola is that it's a fairly stable disease. in the last four decades, it really doesn't mutate. but there's a fear that there's a possibility that it might mutate, have you heard anything about that? has anybody said anything about a new strain or one that spreadsthrough the air or whatnot? >> there's always a chance that viruses can mutate, because each time they infect a person, or each time they infect a cell, they mutate. so far there has been no sign that ebola has mutated to any degree that would make it trance missable by air. >> i wanted to ask him, he's at the cdc -- >> we're going to take a quick

bleak, we're going to come back and talk more ebola. stick around. i am barbara reynolds, the director of public affairs here at cdc. we'll be hearing briefly from four speakers and then take questions from the media. our first speaker is cdc director dr. tom freeden. >> good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining us. as you have been hearing from us, ebola is a serious disease. it's only spread by direct contact with someone who's sick

with the virus and it's only spread through body fluids, the incubation period is eight to ten days after exposure, can be as short as two days or as long as 21 days. it's a severe disease that has a high case fatality rate even with the best of care. but there are core tried and true public health interventions that stop it. today we are providing the information that an individual traveling from liberia has been diagnosed with ebola in the united states. this individual left liberia on the 19th of september, arrived in the u.s. on the 20th of september, had no symptoms when departing liberia or entering this country. but four or five days later, around the 24th of september, began to develop symptoms, on the 26th of september, initially

sought care and sunday the 28th of september was admitted to a hospital in texas and placed on isolation. we received in our laboratory today specimens from the individual, tested them and they tested positive for ebola. the state of texas also operates a laboratory that found the same results, the testing for ebola is highly accurate. it's a pcr test of blood. so what does this mean? the next steps are basically threefold. first to care for the patient and we'll be hearing from the hospital shortly to proskroovid most effective care possible as safely as possible to keep to an absolute minimum the likelihood or possibility that anyone could become infected and second to maximize the chances that the patient might recover.

second, we identified all people who may have had contact with the patient while he could have been infection. and remember, ebola does not spread from someone who's not infectious. it does not spread from someone who doesn't have fever and other symptoms. so it's only someone who's sick with ebola who can spread the disease. once those contacts are all identified, they are all monitored for 21 days after exposure to see if they develop fever. if they develop fever, then those same criteria are used to isolate them and make sure that they are cared for as well as possible so that they maximize their chances and to minimize or eliminate the chance that they would infect other people. the bottom line here is that i have no doubt that we will

control this importation or this case of ebola so that it does not spread widely in this country. it is certainly possible that someone who had contact with in individual, a family member or other individual could develop eboe ebola in the coming weeks, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here. it does reflect the ongoing spread of ebola in liberia and west africa where there are a large number of cases. and while we do not know how this person originally became infected, they undoubtedly has close contact with someone who was sick with ebola or who had died from it. in west africa, we are surging the response, not only of cdc, where we already have more than 130 people in the field, but also throughout the u.s. government, the president has

leaned forward to make sure that we are acting very pro actively there, and the defense department is on the ground, already strengthening the support. we're working with usaid as well as with a broad global coalition to affect the epidemic there. but ultimately we are all connected by the air we breathe and we are invested in ensuring that the disease is controlled in africa, but also in ensuring that where there are patients in this country who become ill, they are immediately isolated and we do the tried and true core public health interventions that stop the spread of ebola. >> thank you, dr. freeden. i would like to next introduce our next speaker, dr. david leahy, director of state

infectious diseases. >> thank you for the support of the cdc as we work through this current situation, as i start off, i first want to say our thoughts and prayers are with the family and with the patient and that the treatment team for this individual. our laboratory, the texas public health laboratory in austin has a specially trained team to handle high risk specimens like this. we were certified on the 22 and of august to do ebola testing, at 9:00 this morning, we received the blood sample, all the controls were within the expects ranges and the ptr was definitely positive for ebola and we got that result back at 1:22 this afternoon. i want to reiterate that we have no other suspected cases in the state of texas at this time. though we are closely m lly mong the situation and ready to assist in any way that's needed.

we have been in significant contact with the hospital, with the mobile health department and the cdc and they have our full support as they work through this situation and we're committed to keeping texas safe. so again, i want to thank the cdc, the local health department in dallas county and the hospital for the work they're doing and we're working through this situation together. thank you. >> thank you, dr. leahy. our third speaker is dr. edward goodman, the hospital epidemiologist with the texas presbyterian hospital dallas, dr. goodman? >> thank you, dr. freeden, dr. leahy. dr. freeden commented on the air we breathe. ebola is not transmitted by the air, it is not an airborne infek

sh ineffect ation. texas health dallas is a department with an infection control system that works in close cooperation with the dallas county health department, the centers for disease control as well as other heepidemiologis within the system and within the community. we have had a plan in place for some time now in the event of a patient presenting with possible ebola. ironically enough, in the week before this patient presented, we had a meeting of all the stake holders that might be involved in the care of such a patient. and because of that, we were well prepared to deal with this crisis. thank you. >> thank you dr. good plan. our final speaker is the dallas county health and human services director dr. zachary thompson.

i want to thank dr. freeden, dr. leahy, as well as texas health presbyterian for our response to this case in dlallas which includes contact investigation, to gather information, based on the patient's travel history, activities and close contact. dallas county health and human services will proceed with the public health follow up per cd krrc guidelines and dallas county health and human services want dallas county residents to be reassured that your public health is our number one priority. dallas county health and human services staff will continue to work hard to protect the health and welfare of the citizens of dallas county. thank you. >> thank you, director thompson. we'll now take questions. dr. freeden? >> thank you very much, and for

questions we'll start in the room and then go to the phone. i thank you very much also for that comment, dr. goodman. as emphasized, ebola does not spread by direct contact. i also want to thank texas and dallas county health departments for their collaboration, cdc has a team of epidemiologists en route to texas now. at the request of the texas department of health and we work hand in hand collaboratively to do what public health does best, which is protect people. and we protect people in this case by making sure that we find the contact, identify them and make sure that they're traced every day for 21 days and if they develop a fever, that they're immediately isolated and

their contacts would be identified as well. so first question in the room? >> you were saying that he started showing symptoms, went to a hospital, and then was released, sent home and then was not admitted until a day or two later? >> the initial symptoms of ebola are often nonspecific. that means they're symptoms that may be associated with many other conditions so may not be immediately identified as ebola and that's why we have encouraged all emergency department physicians to take a history of travel within the last 21 days, that's something to reiterate and to do rapid testing. dr. goodman, is there anything more that you would like to say about it? >> no, i think you summarized it very well. >> next question? >> dr. freeden, i know you're limited a little bit with patient privacy, can you tell us a little bit was this person involved in fighting the ebola epidemic and also did they

travel on commercial aircraft? >> from the information that we have now, it does not appear that the individual was involved in the response to ebola, but that's something that we will investigate more. in terms of the airline flight, i really do want to emphasize the focus here over the next -- needs to be very focused on trying to get assistance to the patient who we understand is critically ill at this point and identifying contact in the community, family members or others and who any possible contact through the health care setting. and then tracing those contacts. in terms of the flight, i understand that people are curious about that and wonder about it, but remember, ebola doesn't spread before someone gets sick. and he didn't get sick until four days after he got off the

airplane. so we do not believe there is any risk to anyone who was on the flight at that time. he left on the 19th and arrived on the 20th. >> next question in the room? >> how likely is this to continue to be a concern with people coming back from the region who aren't showing symptoms then but may later and what is being done at airports and sort of the first lines of people coming into the country to ensure that something like this doesn't continue to be an issue? >> as long as there continue to be cases in west africa, the reality is that patients travel, individuals travel and as appears to have happened in this case, individuals may travel before they have any symptoms. one of the things that cdc has done in liberia, sierra leon is to work with the airport authorities, so 100% of the

individuals getting on planes are screened for fever before getting on planes, and if they have a fever, they're pulled out of the line and assessed for ebola and don't fly until ebola is ruled out. this is one way to make sure that the airplanes themselves are safe during transit and the airlines are willing to keep flaying. but that doesn't rule out a situation like this one, where someone may have been -- will, was exposed and then came in while they were incubating the disease, but not infectious with it. >> can you tell us where he was and, do you know why he was in this country? >> the details of the individual, i think that we will investigate and some of that has to do with patient confidentiality so we would defer to the hospital and the family for any further information on those details. we have a question here, and then shall we go to the phones for the first question after this one? >> you expect the patient to remain in texas and be treat

there had or transferred to facilities such as emery or one of the other special facilities around the country who have been treating ebola in the past? >> one of the things we do want to emphasize, virtually any hospital that can do isolation cado isolation for ebola. although this is the first ebola patient in this country, we have had five patients with other forms of very deadly viruses, what are called viral hemorrhagic fever, none of those five patients spread their illness to anybody else in the hospital. even when they were properly diagnos diagnosed. so we don't zee a need from either a medical or an infection control stand point to try to move the patient. dr. goodman is there anything more that you would like to say? >> no, i think that summarizes it very well. >> if you would like to ask a question by phone, the first

question is from miriam beckle from abc news. >> can you tell us a little bit more about how sick the patient is, how the patient is being treated and how many contacts you are trying to reach? that might be something for the folks in texas. and also will this patient be staying at the hospital in dallas? >> let me turn first to dr. goodman, is any of the information that you can share about the patient's status and treatment? >> well, because of the patient privacy, we're unable to share any information about the patient's symptoms or his treatment at this time. i can stay that he is ill, he's under intensive care, he's being seen by highly trained competent specialists and the health department is helping us in tracing any family members that might have been exposed. >> and director thompson, do you

want to say anything further about contact? >> well, i want to echo that our staff has been doing the public health follow-ups since day one and so we'll continue that process and we'll have more details in the days to come, but right now everything is going fine, thank you. >> thank you. and as i mentioned earlier, we have a team en route to texas now, they will work hasn't in hand with the state and local and hospital public health and help deem logic staff to identify all possible contacts and then monitor them every day for 21 days to see if they have fever. this is core public health work, this is what we do in public health and we're delighted to be doing it in partnership with texas. we're very concerned about the status of the patient and very much hoping for his recovery. on the phoning? >> next questi >> i just wondered if i could

ask for a little more detail about potential exposures. do you have -- you know, is there anything you can say about what this patient was doing between the 24th when he had symptoms and the 28th when he was admitted? so was he at home and to only family members were potentially exposed? or was he out? are we talk about a handful of people who were potentially exposedthat or dozens? >> we think a handful is the right characterization. there were a few other community members who were there to do additional investigations to identify any other possibilities. our approach in this kind of case is to cast the net widely, to ensure that we're it's identifying evening people who may not have had direct contact so we're erring on the side of safety. mr. thompson, is there anything else jowled like too add? >> i concur, our role is to look

at suspected cases and we really appreciate dr. freeden, you send i ing your team down to look at this infection. once we get additional information, we'll report out to the public. >> and i would comment that this is a tried and true protocol. this is what we do in public health. it's what we do in this country for a variety of infectious diseases and it's what we do at cdc globally in ebola cases. in fact by coincidence, today we released in the morbidity and mortality weekly report, a report of the nigeria case investigation where a single patient came in, unlike this, that individual was not cared for with infection control and resulted in a number of secondary cases, but even in lagos and even with 19 secondary cases, they appear to have been able to stop the outbreak. ha