Ground with nbc news chief medical correspondent dr. Nancy schneiderman. She is going to be joining us live from monrovia in just a moment. The camera man was just hired on tuesday. He had been working on the ground in liberia for three years prior to that. Again, he is an american. Hes reported to have come down with symptoms of ebola yesterday on wednesday, at which point nbc news says he immediately quarantined himself and sought medical attention. Earlier this morning, he was given a blood test to test for the presence of the ebola virus. Within less than 12 hours, that blood test came back positive. Nbc news is not disclosing the name of this freelance photojournalist at the request of his family. We know that hes 33 years old. Hes an american. He had been working on the ground in liberia for several years and was recently covering the ebola outbreak. But his diagnosis today makes him the fourth american known to have contracted ebola who will be flown to the u. S. For treatment. Now, all of the others that we know of contracted it, also, while in liberia. And like the three previous cases involving americans, two doctors and and aide worker, this camera man will be brought back to the United States for treatment. As i mentioned, this freelance camera man had been working on the ground in liberia with our own dr. Nancy schneiderman. Its further reported tonight that dr. Nancy and the rest of her nbc crew in liberia is also going to be flown back to the United States and they are also going to be placed under quarantine here, in the United States, for at least 21 days. Its described as the conservative end of the spectrum. Were told this is being done out of an abundance of kwaugs. So far, none of the nbc staff aside of this young camera man have shown any of the symptoms. But, again, the breaking news at this hour is that a 33yearold american freelance camera man working on the ground for nbc news in liberia has been tested positive for ebola. Her crew there includes this young camera man. Thank you so much for being there tonight. Im sure this is a very, very difficult time. Hi, rachel. Its been a bumpy day, to say the least. But you got things right. This is a very experienced photojournalist who we hired to augment our team on the field in monrovia. Yesterday, we were at a Border Crossing traveling from one area to another. His temperature was normal. My temperature was normal. As the day went on, he started to feel just tired, a little achy. And, as you know, a lot of times in the field, you work long days and dont take very good care of yourself. We thought he needed some rest. He signed off early, went home and called me with an elevator temperature. At that point, he quarantined himself and checked in with me. This morning, he went to the clinic and tested positive for ebola and he is being kept in the clinic there right now. The rest of my team, very healthy, we have been extraordinary vigilant. But we are obviously very respectful of this virus that has killed so many west africans at this point. The terms of exposure, were told that the time of exposure to when you start to show symptoms, when you start to show a fever, can be anywhere from two to 21 days. Nayre saying the typical reaction is 810 days. Do you have any inclination of where this exposure might have been. We started working with him three days ago. I believe his exposure was sometime, you know, previous to that. We also observe the custom now, which is to not shake hands, not embrace people. To wash hands with bleach water before we enter the hotel. We dip our feet in bleach solution. I was in an ebola ward the other day and in a typical has mat suit and after that, was meticulously disrobed by nurses on the ground. We have really worked hard to minimize our risk. I mean, obviously, zero risk means never coming to liberia. Minimal risk means crossing over into this country. But you are right. It is 810 days from the time youre exposed to the time you show your first symptom, which is usually fever followed by vomiting, achiness and sometimes diarrhea. The deaths occur because diarrhea and vomiting is so severe. The good news is this young man, our colleague, was admitted to the clinic very, very early. I spoke with him today. Hes in good spirits. Hes ready to get home. Of course, appropriately concerned. But he will be air lifted out soon. And its an abundance of caution, we are self quarantining ourselves, even going beyond the cdc guidelines. We recognize that there is a big story back home. And, frankly, we want to be respectful to our colleagues and to the american public. Dr. Nancy, i just have to ask you in terms of that self quarantine and these plans to bring that young man back to the United States for treatment to bring your crew out, what are you expecting in terms of your ability to continue to work and what does this mean in terms of your daytoday life and who youre able to have contact with and what thats going to be like now. Well, because we know that this is not a casually transmitted disease. And because none of the rest of my team has a fever, we have no other symptoms. We really present zero to marginal risk. I dont want to say zero because its minimal. Really, you cannot catch ebola from someone if that person isnt experiencing symptoms. And symptoms really include looking sick, feeling achy, and being exposed to bodily fluids, vomit, diarrhea, blood, urine, or sweat. We have mitigated those chances by being very careful. So our returning to the United States really prevents very, very very little chance of giving it to anyone. And would only be a risk if one of us ends up getting sick. So we will be taking our tempature twice a day, checking in with each other and if any one of us suddenly spikes a fever or gets symptoms, we will report ourselves to the authorities. We are taking it seriously. But i want people to know that we are well. Dr. Nancy schneiderman, nbcs chief medical correspondent. Take care. And please give our best wishes. Well look forward to seeing you back safe and sound. Dr. Nancy joining us live tonight. Again, the breaking news tonight, a young man, an american, 33 years old, whos working as a freelance camera man for nbc news in liberia. Has been diagnosed positively with having the ebola veal rus. Virus. That makes him the fourth american citizen known to have contracted the ebola virus. All three of those americans did contract the virus in liberia, were flown home and successfully treated and survived the disease here. This young man will be flown back to the United States by nbc news. Speaking with foremost experts on Infectious Diseases when we come back. When we come back. Bad news in e good news fedex has flat rate shipping. Its called fedex one rate. And its affordable. Sounds great. [ cell phone typing ] [ typing continues ] [ whoosh ] [ cell phones buzz, chirp ] and we have to work the weekend. Great. More good news its friday woo [ male announcer ] ship a pak via Fedex Express saver® for as low as 7. 50. I thought so what . , but nowk cai cant stop playing. Rst thats not how it works. I mean its so simple. Its like my Car Insurance. I saved 15 in fifteen minutes. Well esurance could have saved you money in half that time. Three in a row sweet 15 minutes for a quote isnt so sweet. Level 2 start with a quote from esurance and you could save money on Car Insurance in half the time. Welcome to the modern world. Esurance, backed by allstate. Much more ahead tonight on the breaking news of ebola. Hes on his way back to this country for treatment. Also, of course, the firstknown ebola diagnosis in this country. That happened in texas. Thats straight ahead. Stay with us. Whos going to do it . Whos going to make it happen . Discover a new energy source. Turn ocean waves into power. Design cars that capture their emissions. Build bridges that fix themselves. Get more clean water to everyone. Whos going to take the leap . Whos going to write the code . Whos going to do it . Engineers. Thats who. Thats what i want to do. Be an engineer. [ male announcer ] join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring americas future engineers. Energy lives here. All around the world the dedicated people of United Airlines are there to support you. Thats got your back friendly. So this is a map western africa. This is always the list of countries that have been affected. Liberia and sierra leonne, guinea, theyre all relatively small countries, theyre all contiguous, theyre all in one part of coastal, west africa. But also, the fourth one that gets mentioned, nigeria. First of all, nigeria is huge. Its 180 Million People, more people in nigeria than any other african country. Their capital city is one of the biggest cities on earth. 21 Million People in the capital city. Nigeria is big. Its cosmopolitan, its fairly well off compared to other countries in the region. But most importantly, it does not touch those other countries. So sierra leonne and guinea and liberia, god blessm, but part of the problem is that it has been crossing borders there. Easily among those three contiguous countries. Theyve just had a held of a time trying to beat back this epidemic. Nigeria is not like any of those kouj tris. And it does not touch any of those countries. So how did nigeria get ebola . Nigeria got ebola from an american guy. They got it basically the same way that dallas texas got ebola. One guy flew in from liberia who happened to have the disease. Thats what happened in nigeria. Thats what happened in dallas, texas. So dallas, this week, a city of 7 Million People, the city of dallas, basically the country, is in hysteria. Theyre contacting anybody who might have been in contact to make sure that he doesnt infect anybody else. They did the same thing in july in the huge 2 million strong in the capital city of nigeria. Again, just like dallas, just like the yats, they had no ebola epidemic in that country. It was just the one guy who flew in. But there he was. Sick. In a city with 21 Million People and they needed to make sure it did not spread. And in nigeria, they won. They were successful. They had a small outbreak, but they contained it. Theres no epidemic there like there is on those other countries on the list. Thats because nigeria had a really excellent response. They traced everybody that this passenger had contact with. And everybody who had contact with those people. An emergency Epidemic Command Center that had been financed in part by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation that opened up in 2012 to fight folio, they decided to repurpose that center and decided to make it an ebola command krener. They did 19,0 0 facetoface visits with people. They took every school kids temperature to make sure they could find and isolate any kids who had a fever, which is almost always the first symptom. And they did it. They nailed it. They realized they had a problem. They identified it. They isolated it. They sprang into action. And since august 31st, there has not been a single, confirmed case in nigeria. For all intents and purpose, it is over. Is texas capable of doing the same thing . When Texas Governor rick perry held his press conference yesterday to talk about the nations first ebola patient being diagnosed, he opened up his comments with what amounted to good news, bad news and worse news. The good news is that the centers for Disease Control has developed a training protocol for state Health Department departments for how to prepare fsh and deal with potential ebola cases. The good news is that 13 states have completed that Gold Standard training process with the cdc. So theyve got stateoftheart preparation and training on dealing with the threat of ebola. 13 states. Thats the good news bad news, obviously, is that means 37 states have not gone through that training, even though it exists. The worst news, though, is that texas is one of the states that has gone through the training. And texas appears to have blown this in multiple ways. Texass missteps are unsettling. The first and, at this point, the only person diagnosed with that disease here, arrived from liberia last saturday, september 20th. His family members say he reported to feel ill a week ago yesterday. The hospital in dallas says actually, the man came in a day earlier than had previously been reported. He started to feel ill on wednesday. He went to the hospital a week ago tonight. He went thursday, 25th. The hopt, reportedly, had just gone through a drill about how to handle the presentation of a possible ebola case. Even though that individual hocht had training on how to deal with this, when that individual turned up presenting classic early symptoms of ebola, the hospital, for whatever reason, did not recognize him as a possible ebola case and they sent him home with antibuy otices. Whereupon friday saturday and sunday he got sicker and sicker and sicker in the apartment co. Plex. He got so ill that by the time he and his family needed to go back to the hospital that had previously sent him home, by that time, he had to travel by ambulance. And that leaves the secondary area of concern. Who did he potentially expose . Might have have contaminated that apartment that posed a risk to others. Even after he had gone to the hospital on sunday. That man started to feel symptoms more than a week ago, last wednesday. As of today, the soiled sheets and dirty towels and soiled bedding that he used in that apartment getting sicker and sicker and sicker are still there in that apartment. And the apartment is not empty. The family members he was staying with ordered them to stay there. Nobody had removed that potentially infectious material from that apartment. Even as they were ordering family members to stay in that apartment. Theres no reason to be hiss material cat able broad or casual risk. But if somebody who is very sick with the disease has had their body parts on towels and bedding, then those materials need to be handled with extreme care. Ebola is a virus chlts like any good vie russ, it replicates itself. After a person first gets the vie russ into their body, it takes between 2 and 21 days, typically 8, 9 or 10 days for the virus to replicate enough inside that persons body that it produces symptoms. Its only when a person has symptoms that they are at risk. It means that you cant just widely blood test everybody who might have had contact with the person. If you dont have enough virus in your blood to give you symptoms, you dont have enough virus in your blood for it to show up on a blood test, either. The virus has not den enough work to make you sick or be detectable. So the key thing to watch for is the development of that fever or the development of those other symptoms of ebola. Achiness, vomiting, fatigue, bleeding, diarrhea. The problem with that list of symptoms, its pretty common. Hey, happy october 2nd. Its getting to be flu season. So you cant strike that jazz to stop an out break with any fix. Theres no vaccine at this point. Theres only experimental treats. You can do any mass blood test to figure out who is everybody that is the relevant population, right . Theres no technological fix. You need old fashioned, low tech, shoe leter Public Service style detective work. You need to have a facetoface talk with you in which they report any symptoms that theyve goen. They submit to monotoring. Its low tech, but its also intrusive. If its going to work, people are going to have to trust their government. People are going to have to trust in Health Officials and their government. They have to believe it not a conspiracy. They have too believe that the government is telting them the truth. They have to believe that this is actually designed just to help people and to control the spread of disease. This is not a hightech problem. But it is a difficult problem. How is texas doing on that . Are we good enough at this . Has texas done anything as a state to prepare them as well as they need to do it. Theres news tonight that the center for Disease Control has flown in basically an epidemic ateam to take point on this. Its five Service Officers who are the cdcs disease detectives. Its five of them to do the investigative work to find out whos been exposed. Also, theyve flown in three senior scientists. Theyre sending in a specialist communication officer, a specialist public Health Department advisor. This tenperson, cdc team thats flying in to bolster the capacity of texas state officials. And that sounds good. That said, on the ground in dallas, School Attendance was down today. When local and state officials gave their afternoon briefing on the sushbject, honestly, there were way more questions shouted out and ignored. When the briefing had ended, not to their liking, the local press erupted. So we know that there are other people that have come in close contact with his bodily fluids. So weve been told to expected a potential other patient. When that happens, our local medical authorities will be notified. Where will that patient be taken . Wouldnt you want to keep them all in one place . No, again, thats diagnosed that would have to be evaluated. Why would you wait until the last minute to evaluate it. What can you tell us asht the cleaning company thats coming today . What is their background . What are they focused on . How many people you had to go through before they agreed to do this. As information becomes available, we will continue to bring it to you. And i thank you all for your attention. Seriously, is this transparency . If you get us all here and then walk away after a half dozen questions . After half an hour even half an hour isnt enough . Cheri, ive got meeting after meeting after meeting. I have a job, too. And you guys are not being forth coming. Thank you. That was the end of a local texas briefing. You can hear the frustration from the local press. The response from this not only has to be done right, it can only be done right if people trust that Health Department authorities know what theyre doing and that that theyre doing the right thing. Are we hand lting this right so far or not . Joining us now is dr. Anthony foucci. Hes had an esteemed career. Dr. Foucci, its an honor to have you h