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| A young man retrieves food supplies left by the North Texas Food Bank and the Red Cross on the front stoop of an apartment at The Ivy Apartments complex yesterday in Dallas, where Thomas Eric Duncan, left, the Ebola patient who traveled from Liberia to Dallas last week, was staying. |
Four members of a family the U.S. Ebola patient was staying with were confined to their Texas home under armed guard yesterday as the circle of people possibly exposed to the virus widened, while Liberian authorities said they would prosecute the man for allegedly lying on an airport questionnaire.
Meanwhile, NBC News reported on its website last night that an American freelance cameraman working for them in Liberia had tested positive for Ebola and would be flown back to the United States for treatment.
The unusual confinement order was imposed after the family failed to comply with a request not to leave their apartment, according to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
“We didn’t have the confidence we would have been able to monitor them the way that we needed to,” Texas State Health Commissioner David Lakey said.
Elsewhere, Texas health officials expanded their efforts to contain the virus, reaching out to as many as 100 people who may have had direct contact with Thomas Eric Duncan or someone close to him.
The at-risk group includes 12 to 18 who came in direct contact with the infected man, including an ambulance crew and a handful of schoolchildren, plus others known to have had contact with them, said Erikka Neroes, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County Health and Human Services agency.
“This is a big spider web” of people involved, Neroes said.
In Liberia, authorities announced plans to prosecute Duncan, alleging that he lied on a form about not having any contact with an infected person. Duncan filled out a series of questions about his health and activities before leaving on his journey to Dallas. On a Sept. 19 form he answered no to all of them.
Among other questions, the form asked whether Duncan had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of anyone who had died in an area affected by Ebola.
Neighbors in the Liberian capital believe Duncan become infected when he helped bundle a sick pregnant neighbor into a taxi a few weeks ago and set off with her to find treatment. It was not clear whether he had learned of the woman’s diagnosis before traveling.
Duncan remained in a hospital isolation ward yesterday. According to health officials, he became sick and went to a Dallas hospital Sept. 25, but was released, only to return by ambulance three days later and test positive for Ebola.
