Sister: US Ebola patient said he was from Liberia

DALLAS (AP) — According to his sister, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States has said he notified health care workers the first time he went to the hospital that he was visiting the U.S. from Liberia.

It’s one of the West African countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak.

His sister says Thomas Duncan went to a Dallas emergency room on Friday and was sent home with antibiotics. He returned two days later after his condition worsened, and was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

A doctor confirms that a nurse asked Duncan on his first visit whether he’d been in an area affected by the Ebola outbreak, but that the “information was not fully communicated throughout the whole team.”

A nine-member group of federal health officials is tracking anyone who had close contact with Duncan. The team from the Centers for Disease Control is in Dallas to ensure that those people are watched every day for 21 days.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says anyone who develops a fever will be isolated.

In all, officials are monitoring 12 to 18 people who may have been exposed to Duncan, including three members of the ambulance crew that took him to the hospital and five schoolchildren.

%@AP Links

157-a-13-(Dr. Mark Lester, executive vice president, Texas Health Resources, at news conference)-“clinical decision making”-Dr. Mark Lester says the patient now being treated for Ebola had told a nurse on his first visit he was visiting from Liberia. (1 Oct 2014)

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158-a-11-(Governor Rick Perry, R-Texas, at news conference)-“of the disease”-Governor Rick Perry says a few youngsters are being closely watched for any sign of Ebola symptoms. (1 Oct 2014)

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APPHOTO TXDAM552: In this Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 photo, Dr. Edward Goodman, epidemiologist at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, answers follow-up questions to the media after a news conference at the hospital, in Dallas, where a patient has been diagnosed with the Ebola virus. The patient traveled to Dallas from Liberia and is the first case of this strain of Ebola that has been diagnosed outside of West Africa. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Kye R. Lee) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET USE BY AP MEMBERS ONLY; NO SALES (30 Sep 2014)

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APPHOTO TXMO106: A vehicle drives up the driveway to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. A patient in the hospital is being teated for Ebola. (AP Photo/LM Otero) (30 Sep 2014)

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Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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