COMMUNITY FEAR RISES AS EBOLA ARRIVES IN THE US

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The deadly Ebola virus has arrived in the United States.

Community fear is growing after an American doctor was flown home for treatment.

Meanwhile the US is sending an extra 50 experts into Africa to help combat what has become the worst ever outbreak of the virus.

It’s claimed more than 700 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

And the outbreak is threatening to overshadow a summit this week between Barack Obama and African leaders.

North America correspondent Lisa Millar reports.

LISA MILLAR: Nearly 50 African officials are arriving in Washington this weekend for what the White House says will be an unprecedented gathering.

But Ebola – which wasn’t on the agenda – is now dominating.

At least two leaders have pulled out because their countries are affected.

And the president has reassured Americans that plans are in place to make sure no participants are suffering from the virus.

BARACK OBAMA: Folks who are coming from these countries that have even a marginal risk or an infinitesimal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, we’re making sure we’re doing screening.

LISA MILLAR: Ebola has already arrived in the US – under the strictest of procedures. A 33 year old missionary doctor was returned to Atlanta from Liberia for treatment.

Bruce Ribner is an infectious diseases specialist at Emory University Hospital.

BRUCE RIBNER: We do not believe that any health care worker, any other patient or any visitor to our facility is at anyway at risk of acquiring this infection.

LISA MILLAR: That hasn’t stopped a fear campaign.

(Extract from YouTube video)

MAN: Personally, if I was in Atlanta I would get out ASAP. That’s just my personal opinion, I’m not telling you what to do.

LISA MILLAR: Social media is full of warnings from people who confess they have no medical expertise other than to know Ebola kills up to 90 per cent of those who contract it.

The Centers for Disease Control has come under fire recently for lax laboratory handling of bird flu and anthrax specimens.

But the director, Dr Tom Frieden, says the public has nothing to fear.

THOMAS FRIEDEN: I certainly understand that concern. At CDC we had lapses in our laboratories, fortunately no one was hurt and nothing was released into the laboratory environment.

If there are patients with possible Ebola or confirmed Ebola in hospitals, that doctors and the entire healthcare team are super careful. They have protocols in place and make sure that everyone of those protocols is followed.

LISA MILLAR: And another senior official, Toby Cosgrove, the chief of the highly respected Cleveland Clinic, suggested worried Americans take a reality check.

TOBY COSGROVE: More people die in the United States right now from influenza and that requires hand washing and isolation to prevent that, so we must remember that we are in a global world.

LISA MILLAR: Another American aid worker will be evacuated from Liberia shortly.

The patients are kept in a special portable tent inside a private jet, it can only take one infected passenger at a time.

This is Lisa Millar in Washington for AM.