last week, a 20% chance of a victim in the u.s. by january - ebola WINNING!

telegraph | The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in America was initially sent home with antibiotics after doctors failed to recognise the symptoms of the deadly disease.

A desperate search has now been launched to find other people in Dallas, Texas who the man could have infected.

The patient had arrived in Dallas on a flight from Liberia and later presented himself at the hospital because he was feeling ill.

He was told to go home and take the antibiotics, but two days later his condition had deteriorated so badly that an ambulance had to be called.

He is now critically ill and in isolation at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

The ambulance vehicle used to transport him has been quarantined.

Three paramedics who were sent to get him are being kept isolated at their homes and will be monitored for three weeks, the incubation period of Ebola, to see if they develop any symptoms.

Dr Edward Goodman, an epidemiologist at the hospital, said the patient was able to communicate and had been asking for food. He added: "There is no risk to any person in the hospital."

A specialist team from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has arrived in Dallas.