Second US man tests positive for Ebola

A Texas health worker who provided care for the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the US has tested positive for the virus, a state health official said.

The health care worker at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital reported a low-grade fever on Friday night, and was consequently put in isolation. The patient then tested positive for the virus after carrying out a preliminary examination.

The latest diagnosis has heightened fear that the deadly virus could spread from West Africa, where the epidemic started in March and has since killed more than 4,000 people.

The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in US, Liberian citizen Thomas Eric Duncan died in an isolation ward of the Dallas hospital on October 11. Duncan had tested positive for the virus after falling ill when he had arrived in Texas.

Duncan showed no symptoms when he flew to Dallas, passing the airport screening and developing symptoms a few days later.

Officials in Dallas are now working to keep the virus contained, and around 48 people with whom Duncan had been in contact are being monitored, while four people who lived with Duncan have been isolated in a private residence.

The U.S. government has since ordered five airports to start screening passengers from West Africa for fever.

The number of people known to have died in the worst Ebola outbreak on record has risen to 4,033 out of 8,399 cases in seven countries, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Liberia has been the worst affected country with 2,316 victims, followed by 930 in Sierra Leone, 778 in Guinea, eight in Nigeria and one in the United States, WHO said.