The first Ebola case in the United Stated has been diagnosed in a man who is currently being treated at a Dallas hospital.

Ebola Case In Dallas

The man, who is as of yet unidentified, left Liberia on Sept. 19 and arrived in the U.S. Sept. 20. Six days later, the man sought treatment at a local Dallas hospital. He was not tested for Ebola at the time and was sent home with an antibiotics prescription. When his symptoms worsened two days later, he was taken by ambulance to the hospital and was diagnosed with Ebola, reported CNN.

While the infected individual apparently showed no signs of illness upon leaving Liberia, he came in contact with a number of people, including several children, during the time in which he was experiencing symptoms. Those children, relatives and close friends of the patient who’ve been in contact with him are being monitored. One of the individuals is under particularly close monitoring for signs of Ebola.

Second U.S. Ebola Case?

"Let me be real frank to the Dallas County residents: The fact that we have one confirmed case, there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient," said Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, according to USA Today. "So this is real. There should be a concern, but it's contained to the specific family members and close friends at this moment."

Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has admitted that the disease is highly fatal, but also expressed his confidence that the CDC and local medical professionals will be able to contain it.

"It's a severe disease, which 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," Frieden said, according to ABC News. "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.”

Frieden went on to note that every individual flying out of areas in West Africa in which Ebola has been detected are screened for fever. However, as in the case of the patient in Dallas, patients who are not yet feverish will unfortunately pass though, which is a reality the CDC is faced with.

“One of the things that CDC has done in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Lagos, is to work with the airports' authority so 100% of the individuals getting on planes are screened for fever," Frieden said. "And if they have a fever, they are pulled out of the line, assessed for Ebola and don't fly unless Ebola is ruled out."

The directed added, "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."

Up to this point, Ebola has killed more that 3,000 people in West Africa and has infected at least 6,553 people overall. This has been the deadliest outbreak of Ebola on record since the disease of discovered in the 70s.