The deadly Ebola virus is now in the U.S., as officials have confirmed the first case has been diagnosed in Dallas, Texas.

The infected person is said to be a man that arrived from Liberia on Sept. 19, but because he did not show symptoms of the disease, no one that was on his flight is at risk of contracting the deadly virus.

Everyone knew the Ebola would one day make its way to the U.S., but the question still remains, how prepared is the U.S. for a possible outbreak of the disease?

So is Florida, and the rest of American ready to counter any possible Ebola cases?

Hospitals in Florida, like Miami’s Jackson Health System, who have been planning for sometime to received Ebola patients, and Tampa General, are saying that they are prepped and ready to take on the deadly disease.

“We knew that according to the projection model (the U.S.) would be getting our first case around the end of September or first of October,” said Dr. Abdul Memon, chief medical officer for disaster and emergency preparedness at Jackson.
Sparing no expense, Tampa General invested heavily in the heavy duty Tyvek suits, and has designated its “negative airflow” rooms that are also used to quarantine Tuberculosis patients, as the rooms used to treat Ebola patients.
But can these hospitals really deal with a sudden and massive influx of Ebola patients?

While you can’t compare the current disease-fighting medical assets in place in West Africa to the health systems in the U.S., the argument can be made that a disease this infectious could pose a serious and widespread strain on U.S. hospitals, if an outbreak were to occur.