A Liberian man who is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the US, reportedly helped carry a woman with Ebola to hospital days before flying to Texas.
She is understood to have died hours later being turned away from the clinic in the Liberian capital Monrovia.
The Dallas hospital treating Thomas Eric Duncan has been criticised for initially sending Duncan home despite him saying he had come from Liberia. Three days later he returned and was then isolated.
His condition is now being described as ‘serious but stable.’‘
Jennifer Lighter Fisher, a Pediatric Infectious Diseases doctor, said the disease could spread: “Every hospital in the United States needs to be prepared. It is possible that we will get more cases in the United States, but again, there is no risk to the general public.”
Duncan is understood to have come into contact with 20 people including five school children at four different schools in Dallas. All those who have been identified are being monitored at their homes by US health officials.
Amidst panic, parents have begun pulling their children out of the schools involved.
Tonya Griggs, a parent at Tasby Middle School said she was alarmed to hear a child at the school could have been infected with Ebola:.“I was scared like I didn’t want him here. I’d rather him be at home where that I know, you know, in the house safe until they get it under control. Make sure everything is good before he comes back,” she said.
Her son Bobby Sears said the whole thing had been a shock: “I was just wondering why she came and when she told me I got really scared, so I’m kinda happy I’m going home.”
So far more than 3,000 people have died of Ebola in West Africa; most of the victims have been in Liberia.
