(Via Washington Free Beacon)  The Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Dr. Tom Frieden, appeared on four Sunday programs to quell fears that the United States may be at risk for an Ebola outbreak.
“We know that there are travelers from places where there’s Ebola. We know it’s possible that someone will come in. If they go to a hospital and that hospital doesn’t recognize it’s Ebola there could be additional cases or their family members could have cases. That’s all possible, but I don’t think it’s in the cards that we would have an outbreak in this country,” Frieden said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“The way it spreads in Africa is really two things. First, in hospitals where there isn’t really infection control and second in burial practices where people are touching the bodies of people who have died from Ebola. So it’s not going to spread widely in the U.S. Could we have another people here, could we have a case or two, not impossible … but we know how to stop it here.”

The outbreak began in Guinea, before spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone. As of July 30, 826 people have been killed by the illness that has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent.
Two American aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, have contracted the disease.
Concern in the United States escalated after it was announced that both patients would be brought back to America. Brantly arrived in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday and Writebol is expected to follow shortly.
Medical experts echoed Frieden’s position and downplayed the threat of an outbreak in the United States.
“This disease is spread by direct contact or body fluid contact, and inside these containment areas there’s negative pressure so any air going, would go into rather than come out of that facility. The workers are protected by complete covering of their face and all of their body, and they are isolated,” said Dr. Toby Cosgrove, President and CEO, of the Cleveland Clinic.  (read more)