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White House Reacts to Latest Beheading; North Korean Leaders Visit South Korea; New Ultimatum for Protesters in Hong Kong; Answering Ebola Questions; What is Enterovirus D-68?

Aired October 04, 2014 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Martin Savidge joining me now from Dallas.

So, Martin, Dr. Frieden said that there were nine people who had definite contact, and they included family members and some of those people who are working on that ambulance, who had direct contact. But that they're not showing any symptoms. This was one way of trying to comfort people or allay some fears?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. And the news is really good, because as you've just heard, essentially, it is, there was no other case of Ebola in America, at all, with the exception of the one here in Dallas, and of course, that means that all those people that are being monitored in Dallas have not shown any symptoms of the disease as well. It is contained at one, which, of course if you live in Dallas, if you live anywhere in the U.S., you're going to take that as a very positive sign.

The nine people that you talked about, those would be the ones that would be considered high-risk. Because they were the ones who probably had the closest contact with Thomas Duncan before it was determined that, in fact, yes, he's got Ebola.

So yes, you're talking about the four people who were in quarantine. This is his girlfriend and her family. And then you would be talking about those emergency or medical personnel who may have treated him the first time he went to the hospital before it was determined he had Ebola. And then, perhaps, paramedics that transported him to the hospital on the second trip when, in fact, they confirmed he had Ebola.

There was another interesting edition to this sort of group of people that are being monitored. Anybody who rode in that ambulance afterwards may be monitored. It's not saying that they are definitely had contact, but out of an extra sense of precaution, they're going to monitor those people as well. So the total number of people being monitored, high-risk and low-risk, is 50, which is down from the initial group of 114. It was all good news.

WHITFIELD: And then, Martin, do we know anything more about the four people, relatives and the friends, that were in that apartment, quarantined for so many days? Now they have been moved to another location after we saw with that matching video, people in hazmat suits were, you know, trying to decontaminate the apartment they were in. But they are now in another undisclosed location.

Do we know if they are receiving any kind of medical treatment or monitoring at this undisclosed location?

SAVIDGE: Without a doubt they are. And that would include probably having their temperatures taken at least twice a day, with medical staff coming in to just make sure that they are OK. Because they're the ones that are considered to be the highest risk. They were moved out of that apartment complex. That was a relief to a lot of people in the neighborhood, just because they felt, you know, it's high- density living, of course, and if you have people who could possibly come down with Ebola, is it safe to keep them amongst a whole lot of other people?

So now they are in a private home, said to be a four-bedroom residence, that it's surrounded by a -- in a gated community type deal. And that they're on acres of land, and in fact, the officials here said it's the kind of place I would want my family to be.

So it was brought about as a result of somebody in the community feeling for their plight, this is the family, and decided that this was the right place for them to be at. They're said to be fine and they are said to be happy. They'll have to be there, though, until, well, the end of the 21-day quarantine.

WHITFIELD: All right. That was a very generous donation.

All right. Martin Savidge, thank you so much, joining us from Dallas.

All right, now to another developing story. World leaders are reacting with outrage over the latest beheading by ISIS militants. They murdered a fourth victim this week when they killed British aid worker Alan Henning, and now the terrorist group is threatening to kill another American, a medic that they're holding.

Erin McPike is at the White House for us.

So we heard from the parents of that American medic today. What are they saying?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this is Ed and Paula Kassig of Indiana, and they put out a video statement today, giving more information about their son. He's 26 years old. He was formerly known as Peter Kassig. He changed his name to Abdul-Rahman. And in this video, they talk about how he comes from a long line of humanitarian aid workers and teachers.

He in fact himself went over to Syria and started his own foundation, sort of group to help Syrians who are suffering from the civil war. He was then detained on October 1st, just a year ago. And during his time in captivity, he converted to Islam.

I want to play a part of that video statement from his parents to you. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ED KASSIG, FATHER OF ISIS HOSTAGE: We know that the Syrians are suffering. We also believe that violence is not the solution to the problems that trouble us all. There is so much that is beyond our control. We've asked our government to change its actions, but like our son, we have no more control over the U.S. government than you have over the breaking of dawn.

PAULA KASSIG, MOTHER OF ISIS HOSTAGE: Most of all, know that we love you and our hearts ache for you to be granted your freedom so we can hug you again and then set you free to continue the life you have chosen, the life of service to those in greatest need. We implore those who are holding you to show mercy and use their power to let you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: So, obviously, a tense and emotional time for that family. Now we also have heard from the Obama administration on this. We got a statement yesterday from National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden. I want to read part of that statement to you. She said, "At this point, we have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video released earlier today." Now, this was yesterday, the ISIS video that was released yesterday.

She goes on, "We will continue to use every tool at our disposal. Military, diplomatic, law enforcement, and intelligence, to try to bring Peter home to his family."

Now, Fred, separately, we can also report that we got some updated information from Central Command this morning and airstrikes against ISIS targets in both Iraq and Syria continue, almost every day. That did not change last night, there were some additional airstrikes overnight, so we will continue to get updates from the administration as they release them -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Erin McPike at the White House. Thanks so much.

All right. Some unusual diplomacy happening in South Korea today. Top officials from North Korea made a surprise visit, the first such high-level trip in five years. And they delivered a message. Pyongyang is willing to hold a new round of high-level meetings later this month or in early November.

Meanwhile, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un remains mysteriously out of sight. Officials say he has been suffering from what they call discomfort for nearly a month.

Paula Hancock is in Seoul, South Korea, with more on what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This visit was both surprising and significant. The man who's considered to be second in command in North Korea after the leader Kim Jong-Un popped down to South Korea for a last-minute visit. Hwang Pyong So is a vice marshal in the military and he was

accompanied by two more very high-level officials from North Korea.

Now on the face of it, they were here to attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games. Now the North Korean delegation met the South Korean Unification minister, the National Security chief, and the prime minister.

President Park Geun-hye also apparently said she was willing to meet them, but officials said there was no time. The North Korean media has been particularly damming and cutting of the president since she took power.

The North Koreans agreed to another rounds of high-level talks at the end of this month or the start of the next month. One world respected North Korean observer, Andrei Lankov, tells me he can't remember such a high-level delegation from the North coming from the South in decades.

Now it shows that Kim Jong-Un, although absent for more than a month, is still very much in charge. It is assumed that the North Korean leader is in poor health or is having health issues. The state-run media has said that he has, quote, "discomfort." But experts say that the fact that we are seeing three of the top officials in North Korea coming down to what is technically enemy territory to talk peace shows there is a high level of stability in the North.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And this breaking news. Ex-Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier has died of a heart attack. That's according to a family member. The former dictator was also known as Baby Doc. Duvalier was in the office during the 1970s and '80s. He has succeeded his father, Francois Duvalier, better known as Papa Doc.

Well, Baby Doc was overthrown in a popular uprising. He fled Haiti in 1986 and lived in exile in France for 25 years. Duvalier returned to Haiti in 2011, where he was charged with corruption and abuse of power. In 2013, he entered a plea of not guilty.

Jean-Claude Duvalier, dead at the age of 63.

Up next, Hong Kong protesters are given a new ultimatum. Leave or else.

Live pictures right now. Still thousands converging on the central district. What's going to happen next here? We'll go live to the demonstration.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. In Hong Kong, thousands of protesters are flooding the streets again today. At least 20 people have been arrested in earlier clashes, and now

student leaders are saying they won't attend talks with government officials.

CNN's Will Ripley is there on the scene.

So, Will, Hong Kong leaders have laid down another ultimatum. But does it appear as though protesters are starting to make a move and clear out in time by Monday?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In fact, the exact opposite is happening, Fred. And I want to show you, this is the scene of that clash last night between police and protesters, where police forced their way through this barricade. Just in the last 24 hours, what the protesters have done is increase the size of this barricade dramatically, to make it much more difficult for officers to pass through.

You can see, they have these things zip tied together and they've now piled them on top of each other, and there are multiple barricades like this all around the main protest area in Admiralty, which is in the heart of Hong Kong.

You also have a group of young men like this, and they're stationed in areas all over this protest zone, essentially, they -- they put together a plan. They call it a battle plan, so if the Hong Kong police decided to move in and try to disperse, they actually have a step-by-step method of communicating with each other, reinforcing their barricades, and making sure that the thousands of people who are right down there on those streets continue to hold their ground.

You are looking at what just one week ago, Fred, was a major highway running through the city. Now it is shut down, businesses are closed, Hong Kong knows that they need to get this city moving again, but without some sort of a compromise, these protesters say they are ready to stand their ground. And we're just going to have to watch and see what happens.

WHITFIELD: Now we know there's a lot of, you know, censorship in mainland China and I understand that these kinds of images are not being broadcast on television in -- in mainland China. But is there a concern, you know, that because, you know, this message is kind of insular that people in China may eventually learn, if they haven't already, in some other kind of matter, and how this might spark a more widespread protest?

RIPLEY: Yes, Fred, there's very much a concern. A source that's very familiar with the Hong Kong government says that Beijing is growing increasingly worried about the situation here in Hong Kong because they're afraid that mainland Chinese people will see protesters like this, and if the government does make some sort of a concession and somehow appears weak, then perhaps it might give motivation to other protesters in other Chinese cities, to do the same thing.

Beijing has a recipe for how to handle demonstrations like this one behind me. It involves censoring the media, which we know is happening in China right now, and also using tremendous displays of force to move in and clear out protests, but with the eyes of the world on Hong Kong right now, they can't use those same tactics here without some very serious repercussions, not only public relations, but also just the fact that perhaps more people would then rush to this area and this problem could only escalate.

WHITFIELD: All right. Will Ripley, thank you so much, in Hong Kong.

So with the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. this week, many of you are concerned about catching the deadly virus.

Next, we'll have a doctor join us to answer some of your questions that you've tweeted us about Ebola.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A 33-year-old freelance cameraman for NBC News tested positive for Ebola in Liberia on Thursday. Ashoka Mukpo will be transported to Omaha, Nebraska, for treatment. His father in Rhode Island described what it was like to find out his son has Ebola.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DR. MITCHELL LEVY, FATHER OF EBOLA PATIENT: He texted me and he said, dad, you need to answer the phone, I think I'm in trouble. And I immediately knew.

It was very scary. You know, he just spent a month filming people dying from this disease and it's impossible for him to lie there and not go there, not think about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The Nebraska medical facility where Mukpo is headed has already had success treating an American with Ebola. Dr. Rick Sacra and an aid worker who contracted it in Liberia was released on September 25th.

Well, today, many of you have been tweeting your questions about Ebola to us here at CNN at #Ebolaqanda. Dr. Gene Stringer is an infectious disease specialist here in Atlanta and he's going to be here addressing some of yours questions, answering them as best he can.

All right. So, you know, first, before we get to that, when you hear the case of this NBC cameraman, and then we understand the crew that was working with him, they're heading back to the States and they will be in isolation, but it doesn't necessarily mean they'll be receiving medical treatment, because they haven't shown any signs.

What does that mean to be in isolation?

DR. GENE STRINGER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: The main point of that is that they are observed for evidence of disease, without having a confirmed case, you can't spread Ebola. It sounds like the main thing here is probably be monitor their temperatures, as is being done in Dallas for 21 days following the last time that they were in West Africa. And also for other symptoms of Ebola.

But, at this moment, as you imply, I mean, there's no disease to treat. So it's not -- treatment is just quarantine, if you will, for the remainder of that 21-day isolation period.

WHITFIELD: And we heard from Tom Frieden at the CDC in that press conference last hour, reemphasized that the peak period is eight to 10 days after exposure. But in some cases, it could be 21 days before there are any signs. And as we head into, you know, flu and cold season, you know, a lot of folks would see some real parallels of some of the symptoms of Ebola and symptoms of those other things.

STRINGER: Well, certainly, some of the symptoms of Ebola are not those that are usually seen with flu. For example, abdominal pain, for example, bleeding, but certainly fever, the muscle aches are certainly, you know, possible with either influenza or Ebola virus disease. And also some cases the flu may be a little bit atypical and have gastrointestinal symptoms associated.

I should also say that when a person returns to the United States from West Africa with fever, the list of possible things that they may have is long and Ebola is not at the top of the list of those things as far as frequency. You're thinking of things like malaria and typhoid fever, et cetera.

WHITFIELD: Yes. OK. So let's get to some of those questions that have been tweeted. Why isn't there a quarantine procedure in place for people traveling to the USA from the African countries, such as Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone with Ebola?

STRINGER: I think part of the reason for that is that the people who are infectious with Ebola are people who have shown symptoms. Now we have the case of the Dallas patient who was not having fever. The point is, they are attempting to screen for symptoms. And it is the symptomatic patients, at least, heretofore, that have been the ones to transmit Ebola.

So I think that quarantining someone without symptoms, among other things, is diverting effort from things that should have effort devoted to them.

Now I think that, you know, the main point here is to make sure that people don't have symptoms, as I just said. So -- and in particular, fever.

WHITFIELD: And how difficult will it be to establish national guidelines for the handling and disposal of Ebola waste? That question also coming in via Twitter.

STRINGER: I think that, certainly, CDC is going to give us a major lead on that. I think that we certainly face a number of different pathogens in the hospital environment and elsewhere that require different means of disposal. For example, you have the agents that cause slow virus disease, that can even infect people informal (INAUDIBLE) tissue samples, in certain cases. Not to -- just the point being that I think -- I think the main issue

here is going to be identifying people with symptomatic Ebola virus disease, who are attempting to enter the U.S. or have entered the U.S., although Mr. Duncan's case, he did not have fever before arriving.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Gene Stringer, thank you so much. He's going to be back to answer more of your questions about Ebola.

Remember, tweet your questions for Dr. Stringer to #Ebolaqanda and we'll, of course, try to get on as many as we can.

All right, so Ebola is not the only health scare.

Coming up, we'll look at the other killer virus, enterovirus d-68. It has hit 46 states and it's already killed four children and there's no vaccine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Mortgage rates dropped this week. Take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Bottom of the hour now. Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are some of the big stories crossing the CNN news desk right now.

A fire in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, may have damaged artifacts from September 11th. It's not known how the fire started in the headquarters of the memorial to United Airlines Flight 93.

This is new video, however, from a viewer who says his father was working on a nearby construction site and spotted the fire and then reported it to his supervisor. Investigators now assessing the damage.

And it's been three weeks now since a Pennsylvania trooper was shot and killed and police are still searching for the suspect. An officer says Eric Frein is making mistakes and running low on supplies. They've found clothing and ammunition left behind -- believed to have been left behind from him. Police say it's only a matter of time before they catch the 31-year-old suspect.

And officials in Virginia will use a plane with a high-powered camera in the search for a missing college student today. Hannah Graham has been missing for nearly three weeks now and some 150 people are out searching on foot. Hannah's parents just released a statement giving thanks to those helping their family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUE GRAHAM, HANNAH'S MOTHER: We would like again to express our enormous gratitude to all of those who have been involved in the search for Hannah, including the police, the professional search teams, the people staffing the telephone tip line, UVA students, our friends, neighbors, and work colleagues as well as the citizens of Charlottesville and the surrounding area.

We would also like to thank the many, many people who have supported our family during this terrible ordeal, through words, deeds, thoughts, and prayers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Jesse Matthew is in custody right now. Police believe he was the last person to see her. He is charged right now in her abduction.

Alleged thieves are caught on camera doing what? Hurling chainsaws at police. As you see right there, our affiliate WSB reports police in Duluth, Georgia, are still looking for these two men seen in the back of the SUV. Police say they robbed a hardware store and a chase ensured. They tossed three chainsaws and even a weed trimmer, but minutes into the chase, the men abandoned the SUV and then fled.

Another health concern rocking the U.S. is the spread of enterovirus D-68. More than 500 people in 43 states have respiratory illnesses caused by this virus and four people have died.

What exactly is enterovirus and how do you catch it?

CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This particular virus is called enterovirus D68, and they are seeing it mostly in the Midwest and the Southeast. There are dozens and dozens of different types of enteroviruses and they cause different kinds of symptoms. Some cause respiratory symptoms, others might cause gastrointestinal symptoms.

And often an enterovirus is really no big deal. If you`ve ever had a summer cold, there`s a very good chance that that was caused by an enterovirus. But there`s something about D68 that makes it worse. There`s something about this particular type of enterovirus that gives much more severe symptoms that often land people in the hospitals.

This type of enterovirus has been around since the 1960s, it's popped up here and there in the United States and in other countries as well. They don't know why it's gotten so bad this year.

Enterovirus is just spread person to person, and that may be one reason why we're seeing this at this time of year. Children in the southeast and the Midwest, many of them went back to school in mid- August, and that's when all of this started. This D68 enterovirus, it can get anyone really sick, but is much more likely to get a child sick if they have asthma or if they have a history of asthma.

For some people, this enterovirus is going to be bothersome, but won't land them in the hospital. So as a parent, if your child just gets a regular cold, there's no reason to be alarmed. But keep an eye on your child, if things start to get worse, if your child gets a rash or if your child has difficulty breathing, you need to get medical attention.

And pediatricians tell me that this disease can get very bad, very quickly, so as one pediatrician said, there is no time to dawdle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Our thanks there to Elizabeth Cohen.

So if you are a parent, what do you do to keep your kids safe from enterovirus D68?

Dr. Jessica Snowden is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr. Snowden, nice to see you.

DR. JESSICA SNOWDEN, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: Hi. Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: So what advice do you have for parents who are very nervous about this?

SNOWDEN: I can understand, I'm a parent of a 3-year-old who wheezes in daycare. So this is something I think about all the time. The best advice I would have for parents is to make sure you're working with your child on washing their hands, even with toddlers, we can work on that, to try to keep them from getting sick, and watching them closely when they do get their usual cold that they're going to get this time of year.

As parents, I think we develop a radar for knowing when our kid is sicker than usual, when there's something that just seems a little bit out of whack. And if you feel like there's something different or more severe going on with your kid, there's no reason not to go get them checked out. As a pediatrician there is no such thing as a stupid question. We would rather have you come and let us check, make sure things are OK than sit at home and worry.

WHITFIELD: Are there some kids that are more susceptible, at greater risk?

SNOWDEN: It appears to be in younger children that we're seeing this cause a problem, and that's probably because they've not been exposed to this virus before, so they don't have any pre-existing immunity, like adults and older children may.

The other thing that we're seeing in children who have a predisposition to wheeze, whether it's a child who has diagnosed asthma, or a child who just wheezes once a year with their cold, those children seems to be more likely to wheeze than other kids. So if you know your kid has a propensity to wheeze, then one thing you need to make sure you do is that you have your asthma action plan ready, you have their controller medications, and you always have their rescue medications with you when you're out and around during this cold season. WHITFIELD: And how do you identify it? How does a parent look at

this or see symptoms in their kid and say, you know, this is not a cold, this is not a flu, this is something else?

SNOWDEN: As a parent, things I would watch for, if your child appears to be having more trouble breathing than normal. I know one thing that we noticed with my son is if he's wheezing, you can see that his -- the skin between his ribs pulls in and he's breathing a lot faster than normal and it seems like he can't settle down. That would be a sign that your child may be wheezing or having some difficulty and you may want to get them checked out.

Obviously, if your child is turning blue or seems to be gasping for breath, that would be a sign as well, but that seems to be something you're going to see later. The thing, I think, as a parent you would notice earlier is that they're breathing fast or that they're seem to be pulling in, that you can see them working harder to breathe. Those would be signs they're wheezing and having more troubles.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Sorry. Go ahead.

SNOWDEN: Go ahead.

WHITFIELD: No, your information is a lot more important than my question. Go ahead.

(LAUGHTER)

SNOWDEN: If it seems like they're having a harder time than usual to you, I think most of us with young children have seen our kids have 10,000 snotty noses at this point in their life. And we kind of know what that's going to look like for them. If you feel like it's worse than normal, this is more than your normal rate, you can hear it just in their nose, and they've got all that snot, that's all OK. That may still be enterovirus but it's not necessarily something that you would need to seek out medical care for.

But if you notice that they seem like they're struggling more to breath or if they're not able to drink enough because they're having trouble breathing and coughing, then those would be things I would go get checked out for.

WHITFIELD: OK. And since there are no antiviral medications, you know, once a child is diagnosed with this, what's the fix?

SNOWDEN: Most of it is going to be comfort care. So you want to make sure that they're getting enough to drink. It's OK if they're not drinking as much as normal. It's OK if they're not eating while they're sick with this. We just want to make sure they stay well hydrated. And things you're going to look for that, as a parent you're going to make sure their mouth is still wet, that they're still making good urine for you, whether it's wet diapers or actually going to the bathroom. Other things that we can do, if they have a fever that's making them

uncomfortable. Fever in and of itself is not harmful, but if they're uncomfortable with it, you can give them something like acetaminophen or ibuprofen to help try to bring the fever down and make them a little bit more comfortable.

And then again if you have a child who has a history of wheezing or you think they may be wheezing, then that would be a time to make sure you've got your controller medications for their wheezing and you've got the rest of your medications like albuterol or other inhalers that they may need on hand for that.

But there's going to be no role for antibiotics in this case.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SNOWDEN: Unless your doctor is seeing something like an ear infection or something that may occur as a complication.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Right.

SNOWDEN: And that there's not really an antiviral medication.

WHITFIELD: Great information.

Dr. Jessica Snowden, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SNOWDEN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Next, your weekend forecast. The map is full of extremes and I think everybody was feeling it this morning. Pull on a little sweater or two. Jennifer Gray shows us where, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's a weekend filled with weather extremes. Feels like fall here in the East, but then it's a very different story in Southern California.

Jennifer Gray is following all of it for us -- Jennifer.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know it. We felt the chill this morning here in the east, and Chicago was feeling it even more than us. In fact, a few flurries fell in Chicago, making it the third earliest snowfall ever there. So, yes, very chilly for folks in Chicago. And it's going to stay that way as we go through the next couple of days.

We had this massive cold front cause all the thunderstorms we've been watching the damage over the last couple of days, in places like Dallas. That just shifted all the way over to the east, and now very cold air is filtering in behind it. Really affecting the northern plains, the great lakes area, and even dipping down as far south as, yes, places like Atlanta, Nashville, even as far south as New Orleans.

Right now, just dealing with a little bit of rain. We did have some snow flurries earlier in portions of Wisconsin and even right around Chicago. So 46 degrees today, your high temperature in Chicago, but it's not going to be lasting too long. We'll have another cold morning tomorrow, but then temperatures will rebound. 56 on Sunday, 60 on Monday. Detroit, similar for you. 50 today, 54 on Sunday, 61 on Monday.

Look at these overnight lows, though. Very cool across much of the country. 44 in Atlanta for tonight, waking up tomorrow morning. This is how you'll feel. 37 in Chicago, temperatures around 35 in Minneapolis, in the 40s in the northeast.

Of course a very different story on the West Coast. We are looking at very warm temperatures, Southern California, that fire threat is going to remain high. Very, very windy. The Santa Anas have kicked up, so that fire danger is going to remain very high over today and tomorrow. So temperatures around 90 in Los Angeles today. Cooling off a little bit, as we roll into the late part of next week.

And then the same for Vegas. Temperatures right around 93 today, 92 on Monday. Phoenix, you are also staying just a couple of degrees above normal. Temperatures in the mid to upper 90s.

WHITFIELD: My. Quite the mix there.

GRAY: Yes, got a mixed bag.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Thanks, Jennifer. Appreciate it.

All right. So many of you have been tweeting your Ebola questions to #Ebolaqanda. Well, next, we have an infectious disease specialist from the Emory School of Medicine here to answer your questions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is following the historic first diagnosis of Ebola in the U.S. He has the latest on how health officials are handling the situation.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what has happened over this past week has certainly been historic from a medical standpoint. The first patient ever diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. And even more than that, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola anywhere outside of Africa. In many ways, this is historic. It has, obviously, concerns, but it was not unexpected in so many ways as well.

The idea that someone could get on a plane, who had been exposed to Ebola, but not yet sick, and fly around the world before becoming sick is something we were worried about and concerned about for some time. Well, now it has happened. And this was a test in so many ways for the United States and specifically the city of Dallas.

A couple of observations. First of all, the big things in terms of the United States being able to take care of a patient like this. There were many things that did seem to work well. Mr. Duncan, he's 42 years old, he was in critical condition. We now he's in serious but stable condition. He does seem to be improving.

Also, the family and friends. Many of them have been identified, a few of them had been quarantined. They are being monitored. They are being checked to see if they develop any signs or symptoms of Ebola, because if they do, they would go to the hospital as well. That is exactly what is supposed to happen. Those are some of the true and tried principles of stopping an outbreak.

But one can't help but notice that there were a few missteps as well, and the term, the devil is in the details sort of comes to mind. This idea that Mr. Duncan went to the hospital initially, it was even identified as being a patient who recently returned from Liberia, that was written down in a chart. Yet somehow that information was not acted upon. He was not further investigated based on that information and subsequently he was discharged from the hospital for two days, gone, and possibly interacting with more people. That was a concern.

And now a concern that I'm sure no one possibly predicted, but it has to do with just the waste inside his apartment where he stayed after he became sick, but before he went to the hospital.

I had a chance to ask Dr. Frieden, he's the head of the Centers for Disease Control about that very issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CDC: I think the issue that we've been challenged by is what do you do with the waste. That's been an issue that we have been working intensively with the Department of Transportation, which regulates the movement of potentially infectious waste.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: So just to reiterate, you can do all these big things well, but in this case, they didn't have permitting to actually transport some of this hazardous waste from the apartment in this case to a place where it can be disposed or and incinerated.

These are the sorts of details that are going to matter, though, and these are the sort of details that I'm sure public health departments all over the country are starting to think about because one thing has been clear. I think just anybody who has been following the story for months like we have, and that is what happened in Dallas is likely to happen again. There are patients who are probably flying on airplanes who may have been exposed to Ebola and may end up in the United States.

So this story is going to repeat itself. Let's just hope that the lessons that we learned this time around can be applied and be more helpful for the next time.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still lots of questions and that's why Dr. Gene Stringer is back with us from the Morehouse School of Medicine, answering your questions you have been sending, tweeting us at #Ebolaqanda. So one of the last points Dr. Sanjay Gupta was making there, about the

disposal of and that has been a question that many have asked by way of Twitter. Does it mean incineration? Is the best way to dispose of any contaminated material?

STRINGER: Often that's the case. We know that certainly with Ebola that it is sensitive to dry, it's sensitive to commonly used anti- viral agents, although they do need to be ones that are used for the general type of virus that Ebola is. We know that, for example, when you cook bush meat in Africa that has Ebola, we know that cooking destroys it.

We also know that aerosolization, for example, certain medical procedures that need to be avoided in patients with proven Ebola like bronchoscopes, possibly needle aspirations of various kinds. But you can get transmission Ebola through that route. The point being that I think heat is going to be a key ingredient but I think the bigger picture is certainly CDC, you know, has issues guidance for how to dispose of the waste and also the transport of the waste is also regulated now.

Another point that I would just note, a short while back at the CDC Web site is that yes, people with Ebola can go to the bathroom, the sewer system is OK. Also the measures that are utilized with regard to the sewage system to get rid of microorganisms should eliminate Ebola. Yes.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right. Here's another question we've received via Twitter. Is there anything that I can buy at my pharmacy that would act against Ebola?

STRINGER: No. Not as an antiviral. Not as a specific antiviral. I mean, we've heard of the ZMapp which certainly was effective certainly in Dr. Brantley's case it seems and that of his colleagues. However, you know, there is nothing in the pharmacy that you can buy that is going to be a specific Ebola antiviral.

WHITFIELD: OK. I think I skipped -- I went out of order there. I'm sorry. Let's go back to that first question. Can you carry the virus on your hands and transmit it to another surface even though you are not sick if you have been caring for a sick patient?

STRINGER: We know that the transmission of Ebola has certainly been from people with symptoms, although we also know that Ebola is transmitted -- on my hands and we also know that, for example, shaking hands and being within a lever, that is three feet of somebody with Ebola for an extended period of time without having personal protective equipment at home is a risk. Presumably --

WHITFIELD: And you're likely going to touch your face, your mouth, your eyes.

STRINGER: Right. Right. Right.

WHITFIELD: Many openings. STRINGER: But presumably you could -- you could carry Ebola on your

hands, although we also are more susceptible to drying. So I would not expect that effect to be one that would be long duration. And of course, if you already have Ebola, then you don't have to pick it up from somebody else. You may have it just in your bodily fluids a long (INAUDIBLE) basis.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. And then how likely is it that Ebola could mutate either in terms of symptoms or transmission?

STRINGER: Ebola is not known to be something like influenza. They regularly play genetic Russian roulette, if you will. Its genome is not segmented so that it can mix and match in that way. So we know that there's five different Ebola species, some which were not known about until like the late 1980s. Maybe there's things out there that we don't know about. But as far as Ebola mutating dramatically during one epidemic, I think that would be very unlikely.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. James Stringer, thank you so much.

STRINGER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Morehouse College of Medicine.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. This just in. The CDC is at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey investigating a sick passenger on a plane. Right now none of the 255 passengers on that plane are being allowed to deplane. The crew members are also being forced to stay on board.

We're told by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that the male passenger was vomiting. It was a United Airlines Flight 998 from Brussels, the same city where Thomas Duncan had a connection. The plane landed at 12:15 p.m. and has been under quarantine ever since.

The CDC is currently trying to determine where else that passenger may have traveled. It is normal protocol, we're told, for the CDC to investigate whenever someone is sick on a plane. We'll continue to bring you details as they become available and our own Christine Alessi is on her way to the airport to give us more details as well.

All right. Hello, again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the top stories we're following in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The CDC trying to ease the public's fear of Ebola spreading in America. This is a short time ago. CDC director Tom Frieden assured everyone that there was only one person who is tested positive for Ebola in the U.S. and that's out of 114 people his agency, the CDC, has now assessed, meaning people that may have come in contact with Thomas Duncan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FRIEDEN: We have already gotten well over a hundred inquiries of possible patients. We've assessed every one of those, with state and local health departments, with local health departments and hospitals. And just this one patient has tested positive.

We've helped a dozen laboratories around the U.S. do high quality Ebola testings so that testing doesn't all have to come to us here at CDC. It can be done more rapidly locally as is being done in Austin, Texas. And we expect that we will see more rumors, concerns and possibilities of cases. Until there is a positive laboratory test, that is what they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Frieden also said nine people have had definite contact with Thomas Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in United States. And these people have not shown any symptoms thus far. They included friends and family members that were sharing that apartment with him in Dallas as well as the health care professionals, some of whom were in the ambulance who had direct contact with Duncan. However, he remains in serious condition at a Dallas hospital.