DALLAS (AP) — The lone U.S. Ebola patient is in critical condition, the Dallas hospital that has been treating him reported Saturday.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where Thomas Eric Duncan, didn’t provide any further details about his condition and a hospital spokeswoman, Candace White, didn’t immediately respond to emails and phone calls. The hospital previously said Duncan was being kept in isolation and that his condition was serious but stable.
Duncan traveled from disease-ravaged Liberia to Dallas last month before he began showing symptoms of the disease.
Health officials said Saturday that they are monitoring about 50 people for signs of the deadly disease who may have had contact with Duncan, including nine who are believed to be at a higher risk. Thus far none have shown symptoms. Among those being monitored are people who rode in the ambulance that transported Duncan back to the hospital before his diagnosis, said Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Friday, a hazardous-materials crew decontaminated the Dallas apartment where Duncan was staying when he got sick during his visit. The materials were sealed in industrial barrels that were to be stored in trucks until they can be hauled away for permanent disposal.
The family who lived there was moved to a private home in a gated community, where they are being carefully monitored. The city had been having trouble finding a place that would take in Louise Troh, originally from Liberia, her 13-year-old son and two nephews.
The first Ebola diagnosis in the U.S. has raised concerns about whether the disease that has killed 3,400 people in West Africa could spread in the U.S. Federal health officials say they are confident they can keep it in check.
The virus that causes Ebola is not airborne and can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids — blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — of an infected person who is showing symptoms.
Duncan arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and fell ill a few days later. After an initial visit to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, he was sent home, even though he told a nurse he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa. He returned to the hospital two days later, last Sunday, and has been kept in isolation ever since.
The hospital issued a news release late Friday saying that the doctor who initially treated Duncan did have access to his travel history, after all. It had said Thursday that a flaw in the electronic health records systems led to separate physician and nursing workflows, and that the doctor hadn’t had access to Duncan’s travel history.
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Associated Press writer Emily Schmall in Dallas also contributed to this report.
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I just think it’s ironic that this happened in TEXAS, which claims oh-so-falsely to be in the vanguard of this country. This is what government cutbacks and educational degradation get you, I’d say. I freely admit I’m biased; yes, I’m biased against Texas, and against all the other Bible-Belt, traitor Confederate states.
It’s really sad the way the family of the patient was treated by the Dallas community.
Ah, yes… just the kind of constructive thinking guaranteed to solve serious problems, resolve differences, improve conditions, etc. Thanks a lot.
Words that fill me with fear:
Governor Perry is confident that Texas health care officials will contain Ebola outbreak.
The Stand started in Texas too if I recall.
Ebola is absolutely no laughing matter. Condescending snark is NEVER appropriate or welcome when talking about this disease. Forget what you think about Texas. Ebola is now in the United States. Common sense and a common purpose trump political ideology.