The Dallas man admitted into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for Ebola may have come in contact with between 18 and 80 adults and children between the time he left Liberia and was finally diagnosed with the virus. The man told health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that he flew part of his trip on United Airlines from Washington Dulles to Dallas-Fort Worth on September 20. Family friend Gee Melish identified the Dallas man as Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, who was visiting family and friends in the States when he began suffering from symptoms of the virus.
Health officials stated that Duncan first came into contact with the deadly Ebola virus when he carried an afflicted pregnant woman to a hospital in Liberia. She woman was turned away from the hospital for lack of space and later died at her home. Four days later Duncan traveled to Brussels and then the United States on an United Airlines flight. A United Airlines spokesperson said that the man showed no signs of the infection at the time.
“There is ‘zero risk of transmission’ on any flight on which the patient flew because he was not symptomatic until several days after his trip and could not have been contagious on the dates he traveled, the director of the CDC informed the United Airlines spokesperson. As a precaution the school children were instructed to stay home.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital hospital official Mark Lester said that Duncan was previously admitted to the hospital and sent home with antibiotics two days before the Ebola diagnosis even after telling officials he had visited West Africa. Lester admitted that the nurse was told about Duncan’s travel but that information “was not factored into the full decision making process.” Two days later witnesses stated Duncan was seen outside of the apartment complex vomiting before being transported to the same hospital in an ambulance.
This morning, Dallas Health Director Zack Thompson revealed that medical professionals are interviewing a total of 80 people who may have come in contact with Duncan, including five children. Duncan is not being treated with experimental drug Zmapp because no more is available according to the manufacturer. Zmapp is credited with saving the lives of the three American aid workers who contracted the disease and were brought back to the US for treatment.
Officials said health workers who took care of the patient so far have tested negative for the virus and that the case is an isolated incident in the state. Texas Governor Rick Perry said he is confident that the virus would be contained.