Texas Ebola patient denied contact with virus, Liberian official says By Gary Tuchman, Jacque Wilson and Holly Yan, CNN 3:53 PM EDT, Thu October 2, 2014 Anderson Coopers interview with Louise, the partner of Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, will air on CNNs AC360 tonight. Dallas (CNN) -- [Breaking news update at 3:52 p.m. ET Thursday] Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan answered no to questions about whether he had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of someone who had died in an area affected by Ebola, Binyah Kesselly, board chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority, told CNN. Duncan is hospitalized in Dallas, Texas. A contractor will arrive as soon as possible to deal with hygiene issues at the Dallas apartment where a family is quarantined after Duncan stayed there, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told reporters Thursday. So far, no one who had contact with Duncan has shown any indication of having contracted Ebola, Jenkins said. Sheets inside the apartment that were used by Duncan were placed in a sealed plastic bag, along with the mans belongings, Jenkins said. Contractors hired to clean the apartment will appropriately dispose of those items, he said. Custodians are stepping up cleanup work at Dallas schools attended by the five students who may have been in contact with Duncan. We dont think theres any virus at any of those buildings, but well take that off the table, so were doing extra cleaning and disinfecting, said Mike Miles, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District. Attendance at those schools Thursday was down to about 86%, Miles said. Ebola patients contacts being monitored Officials are dividing into two teams to narrow a list of people who may have had contact with the Texas Ebola patient, CDC spokesman David Daigle told reporters Thursday. Were making great progress on that, Daigle said. I think youve heard already that theres a list of about 100 what we call potential or possible contacts. And that will be culled down to a list that we will begin contact tracing on. [Original story, posted at 3 p.m. ET Thursday] Did U.S. Ebola patient lie on airport questionnaire? (CNN) -- If its determined that U.S. Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan lied on his health screening questionnaire before leaving West Africa, the Liberia Airport Authority will seek to prosecute, board chairman Binyah Kesselly told CNN on Thursday. The health questionnaire typically contains questions about the passengers recent contact with Ebola patients. Passengers also are asked whether theyve experienced any symptoms consistent with Ebola, such as vomiting, diarrhea or joint pain, in the past couple of days. Duncan was helping Ebola patients during his stay in Liberia, witnesses say. Liberian community leader Tugbeh Chieh Tugbeh said Duncan was caring for an Ebola-infected patient at a residence in Paynesville City, just outside of Monrovia. Duncan was screened three times before he boarded his flight in Liberia to Brussels, Kesselly said. The first screening was at the gate, before you get to the parking lot. The second time is before you enter the terminal building and the third is before you board the flight. At every point your temperature is scanned. His temperature at those checkpoints was a consistent 97.3 degrees Fahrenheit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Thomas Frieden told reporters Thursday. Basically, he didnt have a fever, Frieden said, noting that the Ebola patients temperature was taken by a trained CDC health care worker with a thermometer approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Kesselly said airport authority would seek to prosecute Duncan if it is determined that he made a false declaration during the health screening questionnaire. We cannot make the (Ebola) risk zero until the outbreak is controlled in West Africa, said Frieden. He went on to say that isolating West African countries completely through travel restrictions would make it more difficult to assist in controlling the outbreak, and would eventually put the United States at greater risk. Ebola preps difficult for hospitals Duncan is in serious condition at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Wilfred Smallwood, who says hes a half-brother of Duncan, said Thursday that he doesnt believe Duncan knew he had Ebola when he left Liberia for the United States. (Its) what we do in Liberia -- our tradition is to help somebody who needs help, he said when asked about Duncans contact with Ebola patients. Smallwood said that when Duncan first visited Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, neither Duncan nor the hospital knew then that he had Ebola. This was Duncans first time in the United States, Smallwood said. Smallwood left Liberia nine years ago to move to the United States, where many relatives live. Duncan, a resident of Liberia, was visiting his son and his sons mother in Dallas, Smallwood said. The partner of Duncan has been quarantined in her Dallas apartment where Duncan became sick with the virus, the woman told CNNs Anderson Cooper. The woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Louise, is quarantined with one of her children who is younger than 13 and two nephews in their 20s. The four of them were in the apartment when Duncan became ill, Cooper said. Louise and her family are in isolation with sheets and towels used by the Ebola-stricken Duncan, Cooper said. Louise did use bleach to clean her apartment, but its not clear to me how systematic the cleaning was, he said. Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the homes conditions need to be improved. There has been hesitancy on the part of companies in Texas that would be able to clean the womans apartment, he said, but the department has identified an entity that is on its way to help. There is a law enforcement officer stationed at the apartment to ensure the four people inside do not come into contact with anyone else, Lakey said. Food is being delivered to the family. Up to 100 people being contacted Health officials are reaching out to as many as 100 people who may have had contact with Duncan, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services said Thursday. These are people who are still being questioned because they may have crossed paths with the patient either at the hospital, at his apartment complex or in the community. Ebola patient released by mistake A girl cries as community activists approach her outside her Monrovia, Liberia, home on Thursday, October 2, a day after her mother was taken to an Ebola ward. Health officials say the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the deadliest ever. More than 3,000 people have died, according to the World Health Organization. Marie Nyan, whose mother died of Ebola, carries her 2-year-old son, Nathaniel Edward, to an ambulance in the Liberian village of Freeman Reserve on Tuesday, September 30. A health official uses a thermometer Monday, September 29, to screen a Ukrainian crew member on the deck of a cargo ship at the Apapa port in Lagos, Nigeria. Children pray during Sunday service at the Bridgeway Baptist Church in Monrovia, Liberia, on Sunday, September 28. Residents of the St. Paul Bridge neighborhood in Monrovia take a man suspected of having Ebola to a clinic on September 28. Workers move a building into place as part of a new Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on September 28. Medical staff members at the Doctors Without Borders facility in Monrovia burn clothes belonging to Ebola patients on Saturday, September 27. A police officer patrols a road in Monrovia on September 27 after a body was found in the center of the city. Tents are set up as health control centers at an air base near the Senegalese capital of Dakar on September 27. After closing its borders on August 21, Senegal opened an air corridor to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered to the three areas most affected by the Ebola virus. A health worker in Freetown, Sierra Leone, sprays disinfectant around the area where a man sits before loading him into an ambulance on Wednesday, September 24. People wait outside a new Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on Tuesday, September 23. Health workers in protective suits work outside an Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on September 23. Medics load an Ebola patient onto a plane at Sierra Leones Freetown-Lungi International Airport on Monday, September 22. A team that handles the management of dead bodies prays with Saymon Kamara, far right, on September 22 in Monrovia. Kamaras mother died from complications of high blood pressure. A few people are seen in Freetown during a three-day nationwide lockdown on Sunday, September 21. In an attempt to curb the spread of the Ebola virus, people in Sierra Leone were told to stay in their homes. A baby pig sleeps in front of an ambulance at the Connaught Hospital in Freetown on September 21. Supplies wait to be loaded onto an aircraft at New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday, September 20. It was the largest single shipment of aid to the Ebola zone to date, and it was coordinated by the Clinton Global Initiative and other U.S. aid organizations. A volunteer health worker in Freetown talks with residents on how to prevent Ebola infection and identify symptoms of the virus on September 20. Bars of soap were also distributed. Police in Freetown guard a roadblock Friday, September 19, as the country began enforcing its three-day nationwide lockdown. A student of the Sainte Therese school in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, looks at placards Monday, September 15, that were put up to raise awareness about the symptoms of the Ebola virus. Members of a volunteer medical team wear protective gear before the burying of an Ebola victim Saturday, September 13, in Conakry, Guinea. A child stops on a Monrovia street Friday, September 12, to look at a man who is suspected of suffering from Ebola. Health workers on Wednesday, September 10, carry the body of a woman who they suspect died from the Ebola virus in Monrovia. A woman in Monrovia carries the belongings of her husband, who died after he was infected by the Ebola virus. Five ambulances that were donated by the United States to help combat the Ebola virus are lined up in Freetown on September 10 following a ceremony that was attended by Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma. A health worker wears protective gear Sunday, September 7, at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia. An ambulance transporting Dr. Rick Sacra, an American missionary who was infected with Ebola in Liberia, arrives at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday, September 5. Sacra was being treated in the hospitals special isolation unit. Medical workers from the Liberian Red Cross carry the body of an Ebola victim Thursday, September 4, in Banjol, Liberia. Health workers in Monrovia place a corpse into a body bag on September 4. A rally against the Ebola virus is held in Abidjan on September 4. After an Ebola case was confirmed in Senegal, people load cars with household items as they prepare to cross into Guinea from the border town of Diaobe, Senegal, on Wednesday, September 3. Crowds cheer and celebrate in the streets Saturday, August 30, after Liberian authorities reopened the West Point slum in Monrovia. The military had been enforcing a quarantine on West Point, fearing a spread of the Ebola virus. A health worker wearing a protective suit conducts an Ebola prevention drill at the port in Monrovia on Friday, August 29. Senegalese Health Minister Awa Marie Coll-Seck gives a news conference August 29 to confirm the first case of Ebola in Senegal. She announced that a young Guinean had tested positive for the deadly virus. Volunteers working with the bodies of Ebola victims in Kenema, Sierra Leone, sterilize their uniforms on Sunday, August 24. A Liberian health worker checks people for symptoms of Ebola at a checkpoint near the international airport in Dolo Town, Liberia, on August 24. A guard stands at a checkpoint Saturday, August 23, between the quarantined cities of Kenema and Kailahun in Sierra Leone. A burial team from the Liberian Ministry of Health unloads bodies of Ebola victims onto a funeral pyre at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia, on Friday, August 22. A humanitarian group worker, right, throws water in a small bag to West Point residents behind the fence of a holding area on August 22. Residents of the quarantined Monrovia slum were waiting for a second consignment of food from the Liberian government. Dr. Kent Brantly leaves Emory University Hospital on Thursday, August 21, after being declared no longer infectious from the Ebola virus. Brantly was one of two American missionaries brought to Emory for treatment of the deadly virus. Brantly, right, hugs a member of the Emory University Hospital staff after being released from treatment in Atlanta. Family members of West Point district commissioner Miata Flowers flee the slum in Monrovia while being escorted by the Ebola Task Force on Wednesday, August 20. An Ebola Task Force soldier beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine on the West Point slum on August 20. Local residents gather around a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a back alley of the West Point slum on Tuesday, August 19. The boy was one of the patients that was pulled out of a holding center for suspected Ebola patients after the facility was overrun and closed by a mob on August 16. A local clinic then refused to treat Saah, according to residents, because of the danger of infection. Although he was never tested for Ebola, Saahs mother and brother died in the holding center. A burial team wearing protective clothing retrieves the body of a 60-year-old Ebola victim from his home near Monrovia on Sunday, August 17. lija Siafa, 6, stands in the rain with his 10-year-old sister, Josephine, while waiting outside Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on August 17. The newly built facility will initially have 120 beds, making it the largest-ever facility for Ebola treatment and isolation. Brett Adamson, a staff member from Doctors Without Borders, hands out water to sick Liberians hoping to enter the new Ebola treatment center on August 17. Workers prepare the new Ebola treatment center on August 17. A body, reportedly a victim of Ebola, lies on a street corner in Monrovia on Saturday, August 16. Liberian police depart after firing shots in the air while trying to protect an Ebola burial team in the West Point slum of Monrovia on August 16. A crowd of several hundred local residents reportedly drove away the burial team and their police escort. The mob then forced open an Ebola isolation ward and took patients out, saying the Ebola epidemic is a hoax. A crowd enters the grounds of an Ebola isolation center in the West Point slum on August 16. The mob was reportedly shouting, No Ebola in West Point. A health worker disinfects a corpse after a man died in a classroom being used as an Ebola isolation ward Friday, August 15, in Monrovia. A boy tries to prepare his father before they are taken to an Ebola isolation ward August 15 in Monrovia. Kenyan health officials take passengers temperature as they arrive at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Thursday, August 14, in Nairobi, Kenya. A hearse carries the coffin of Spanish priest Miguel Pajares after he died at a Madrid hospital on Tuesday, August 12. Pajares, 75, contracted Ebola while he was working as a missionary in Liberia. A member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leads a training session on Ebola infection control Monday, August 11, in Lagos. Health workers in Kenema screen people for the Ebola virus on Saturday, August 9, before they enter the Kenema Government Hospital. A health worker at the Kenema Government Hospital carries equipment used to decontaminate clothing and equipment on August 9. Health care workers wear protective gear at the Kenema Government Hospital on August 9. Paramedics in protective suits move Pajares, the infected Spanish priest, at Carlos III Hospital in Madrid on Thursday, August 7. He died five days later. Nurses carry the body of an Ebola victim from a house outside Monrovia on Wednesday, August 6. A Nigerian health official wears protective gear August 6 at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta sit in on a conference call about Ebola with CDC team members deployed in West Africa on Tuesday, August 5. Aid worker Nancy Writebol, wearing a protective suit, gets wheeled on a gurney into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on August 5. A medical plane flew Writebol from Liberia to the United States after she and her colleague Dr. Kent Brantly were infected with the Ebola virus in the West African country. Nigerian health officials are on hand to screen passengers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Monday, August 4. A man gets sprayed with disinfectant Sunday, August 3, in Monrovia. Dr. Kent Brantly, right, gets out of an ambulance after arriving at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Saturday, August 2. Brantly was infected with the Ebola virus in Africa, but he was brought back to the United States for further treatment. Nurses wearing protective clothing are sprayed with disinfectant Friday, August 1, in Monrovia after they prepared the bodies of Ebola victims for burial. A nurse disinfects the waiting area at the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia on Monday, July 28. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, right, walks past an Ebola awareness poster in downtown Monrovia as Liberia marked the 167th anniversary of its independence Saturday, July 26. The Liberian government dedicated the anniversary to fighting the deadly disease. In this photo provided by Samaritans Purse, Dr. Kent Brantly, left, treats an Ebola patient in Monrovia. On July 26, the North Carolina-based group said Brantly tested positive for the disease. Days later, Brantly arrived in Georgia to be treated at an Atlanta hospital, becoming the first Ebola patient to knowingly be treated in the United States. A 10-year-old boy whose mother was killed by the Ebola virus walks with a doctor from the aid organization Samaritans Purse after being taken out of quarantine Thursday, July 24, in Monrovia. A doctor puts on protective gear at the treatment center in Kailahun on Sunday, July 20. Members of Doctors Without Borders adjust tents in the isolation area in Kailahun on July 20. Boots dry in the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 20. Red Cross volunteers prepare to enter a house where an Ebola victim died in Pendembu, Sierra Leone, on Friday, July 18. Dr. Jose Rovira of the World Health Organization takes a swab from a suspected Ebola victim in Pendembu on July 18. Red Cross volunteers disinfect each other with chlorine after removing the body of an Ebola victim from a house in Pendembu on July 18. A dressing assistant prepares a Doctors Without Borders member before entering an isolation ward Thursday, July 17, in Kailahun. A doctor works in the field laboratory at the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 17. Doctors Without Borders staff prepare to enter the isolation ward at an Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 17. A health worker with disinfectant spray walks down a street outside the government hospital in Kenema on Thursday, July 10. Dr. Mohamed Vandi of the Kenema Government Hospital trains community volunteers who will aim to educate people about Ebola in Sierra Leone. Police block a road outside Kenema to stop motorists for a body temperature check on Wednesday, July 9. A woman has her temperature taken at a screening checkpoint on the road out of Kenema on July 9. A member of Doctors Without Borders puts on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry on Saturday, June 28. Airport employees check passengers in Conakry before they leave the country on Thursday, April 10. CNNs Dr. Sanjay Gupta, left, works in the World Health Organizations mobile lab in Conakry. Gupta traveled to Guinea in April to report on the deadly virus. A Guinea-Bissau customs official watches arrivals from Conakry on Tuesday, April 8. Egidia Almeida, a nurse in Guinea-Bissau, scans a Guinean citizen coming from Conakry on April 8. A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA and test for the virus Thursday, April 3, at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou, Guinea. Members of Doctors Without Borders carry a dead body in Gueckedou on Friday, April 1. Gloves and boots used by medical personnel dry in the sun April 1 outside a center for Ebola victims in Gueckedou. A health specialist works Monday, March 31, in a tent laboratory set up at a Doctors Without Borders facility in southern Guinea. Health specialists work March 31 at an isolation ward for patients at the facility in southern Guinea. Workers associated with Doctors Without Borders prepare isolation and treatment areas Friday, March 28, in Guinea. Photos: Ebola outbreak in West Africa Photos: Ebola outbreak in West Africa Out of an abundance of caution, were starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patients home, spokeswoman Carrie Williams said. The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection. The number of direct contacts who have been identified and are being monitored right now is more than 12, a federal official told CNN on Thursday. By the end of the day, we should have a pretty good idea of how many contacts there are, the official said. Being monitored means a public health worker visits twice a day to take the contacts temperature and ask them if they are experiencing any symptoms. None of the people being monitored has so far shown symptoms. Most are not being quarantined, though Dallas County health officials have ordered four close relatives of the patient to stay home and not have any visitors until at least October 19. The family was having some challenges following the directions to stay home, so were taking every precaution, Texas Department of Health spokeswoman Carrie Williams said about why the state had issued a legal order. Two things are still spreading in Dallas: fear and frustration. Some parents are scared to take their kids to the schools that his girlfriends children attended. Others are upset at the hospital where Duncan first sought care, which sent him home and raised the possibility he could infect others for at least two additional days. Your Ebola questions answered I just got scared Among the people Duncan encountered were his girlfriends five children, Liberian community leader Stanley Gaye said. Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles said the patient came in contact with five students who attended four different schools in the area. Sam Tasby Middle School is one of those schools. I just got scared because I thought that that kid came to that school and probably got contact with him, said Nellie Catalan, whose child attends the middle school. Perry: Ebola patient had contact with kids I know it doesnt get (spread) by the air, but you never know. More than 3,500 students attend the four schools, which are getting cleaned and sanitized over the next few days. But student Denise Trujillo said shes still worried. I dont feel like going to school tomorrow, she said. While the five students who were near Duncan are staying home and being monitored, their schools will remain open. The investigation is ongoing, but health officials dont believe there is a workplace or community organization that Duncan visited where anyone was exposed, Frieden said Thursday. Should Americans worry about getting Ebola? It gets bad -- fast Because the early symptoms of Ebola can include abdominal pain, fever and vomiting -- ailments that also come with other illnesses -- there are concerns about how to distinguish between Ebola and, say, the flu. But the answer is fairly simple. Ebola tends to progress much more quickly, said Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent. It gets bad -- fast. And once it gets bad, Ebola can bring on a host of ghastly symptoms, including diarrhea and unexplained bruising and bleeding. But Ebola is much harder to contract than the flu. The virus can be spread only through the bodily fluids of people who have active symptoms of the illness. How Ebola spreads They dropped the ball On September 24, four days after he arrived in Dallas from Liberia, Duncan started feeling symptoms. That day is significant because thats when he started being contagious. Late the following night, he went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas with a low-grade fever and abdominal pain, the hospital said. Duncan told a nurse he had been in Africa. But regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team, said Dr. Mark Lester, executive vice president of Texas Health Resources. Duncan was sent home with painkillers and antibiotics, only to return in worse condition on September 28. Thats when he was isolated. It was a mistake. They dropped the ball, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of the miscommunication at the hospital. You dont want to pile on them, but hopefully this will never happen again. ... The CDC has been vigorously emphasizing the need for a travel history. Gupta said this mishap doesnt make sense. A nurse did ask the question, and he did respond that he was in Liberia, and that wasnt transmitted to people who were in charge of his care, he said. Theres no excuse for this. And one of Duncans friends said he was the one who contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with concerns that the hospital wasnt moving quickly enough after Duncans second hospital visit. But the hospital said the patients condition did not warrant admission last week. Ebola reaches U.S.: A tragedy of errors Searching for others Duncans contacts will be monitored for 21 days -- the longest amount of time it takes for Ebola symptoms to show up. If any of Duncans contacts show symptoms, they will be isolated. So far, so good. The paramedics who transported Duncan to the hospital havent shown symptoms, said Rawlings, the Dallas mayor. Neither have his girlfriends children. They are doing well. ... They are doing fine, said Gaye, the Liberian community leader. All she asks for are our prayers. But if one of those contacts ends up having Ebola, the tedious processes of tracking and monitoring a web of contacts would have to start all over again.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 20:34:05 +0000
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