Up to 100 exposed already in Dallas Ebola shambles: Family try to break out of isolation at virus victim’s apartment - where infected sheets still lie on the bed - as visitors come and go
- A woman called Louise, who identified herself as Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan's 'wife', spoke out from her isolation
- Family members initially violated orders and left their Dallas apartment, prompting a quarantine order, Dallas judge said today
- No visitors allowed in but MailOnline reported three people coming and going to the home on Wednesday
- Four relatives quarantined - Louise, her 13-year-old child and two nephews in their twenties
- Louise said CDC have not told her what to do with Duncan's sweaty sheets, pillows and the towels he used while contagious
- Following the shocking revelation, CDC sent medical team to Louise's home on Thursday afternoon - days after Duncan confirmed as Ebola case
- Hospital sent sick Mr Duncan home on Thursday at 10pm - THREE days before he was rushed in and not the two days initially reported by hospital
- 100 people being sought who had possible contact with Duncan - 12 have confirmed contact including five children
- Panic-stricken parents removing students from four affected Dallas schools despite authorities' notes claiming 'everything is fine'
- Ebola isn't contagious until symptoms appear, and then it can spread only by close contact with a patient's bodily fluids
The response to the first Ebola case in the U.S. was in chaos today after it emerged that the exposed relatives of the contagious patient tried to break out of their apartment where the sweat-soaked, contaminated bedsheets and towels still lie.
Up to 100 people in Texas are believed to have had contact with Ebola sufferer Thomas Eric Duncan since he developed symptoms of the deadly virus last Thursday at 10pm.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital earlier reported that Mr Duncan had come for treatment on Friday - but the new timeline adds an extra day to how long he was out in public.
The patient's quarantined girlfriend Louise told CNN on Thursday that she had not been told what to do with the soiled linens used by Mr Duncan when he was ill and had not been given food.
The woman has been legally ordered to stay inside her Dallas apartment with her 13-year-old child and two nephews, who are both in their twenties, as they came in direct contact with Mr Duncan.
None of the four people quarantined are showing Ebola symptoms but Louise, who works as a home healthcare aide, has been taking the group's temperature every hour.
The CDC jumped into action on Thursday afternoon, sending a team to clear the bedding, provide food and power-wash the apartment complex - a full four days after Mr Duncan was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after suffering vomiting, diarrhea, fever and sweating.
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One member of a cleaning crew in hazmat suit at Lowe Elementary School in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday as the schools attended by the children who came in contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan underwent deep cleans
The four schools affected introduced safety measures on Wednesday including cleaning teams and extra nurses to monitor any students suffering from fever or flu-like symptoms
Gabriella Beltran, right, walks from Hotchkiss Elementary with her children Valeria Curranza, Joseph Manuel Beltran and Oliver Torres in Dallas on Wednesday after parents were asked to pick their children up early. Children who were in close contact with the man who has Ebola attend the school - causing some panicked parents to temporarily remove their kids
Mr Duncan arrived from Liberia, an Ebola 'hot zone' in West Africa, on September 20. He began to develop Ebola symptoms - the point when the disease becomes contagious - on September 23.
He was sent home from his first hospital trip with antibiotics despite telling two medical staff he had flown in from Liberia. He was then rushed to hospital via ambulance on Sunday and quarantined.
However it was alleged on Thursday that Mr Duncan lied on an airport questionnaire about not having any contact with an infected person, authorities said on Thursday.
Mr Duncan filled out a series of questions about his health and activities before leaving on his journey to Dallas, Texas on September 19. On the form he answered no to every question.
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.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Mr Duncan had helped carried a neighbor's pregnant daughter who was dying from Ebola.
It also appears that Mr Duncan did not mention his close contact with a severe case of Ebola to his partner Louise, with whom he has one child.
She told Anderson Cooper on Thursday that the couple did not discuss Ebola and she initially thought he had malaria when she brought him to Texas Presbyterian.
Louise does not believe she has Ebola because she did not come in contact with bodily fluids. She said Mr Duncan was 'prideful' in taking care of himself when he became sick.
She also did not believe he had thrown up repeatedly outside the apartment on Sunday, as a neighbor reported, and wished to reassure her neighbors.
Meanwhile, the number of family members who came in contact with Mr Duncan while he was contagious remains unclear, CNN reported.
Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who had traveled to the U.S. from Liberia on September 20 to visit family, has been quarantined at a Dallas hospital for Ebola
An unidentified male peeks his head through a curtain inside the apartment where Ebola sufferer Thomas Eric Duncan was staying when he became contagious in Dallas, Texas
Louise's daughter, who does not live at the quarantined apartment, was the person who called an ambulance for Mr Duncan on Sunday after she came to her mother's home to bring him tea and found him feverish and shivering.
It is unclear if she traveled with him in the ambulance or came in close contact with the infected man.
Louise told CNN that she has other children, who are not currently living at the home but elsewhere in Dallas and also a son at college. They did not come in contact with Mr Duncan, she said.
The family who are isolated in the apartment have been told they face criminal charges if they leave the apartment or accept visitors.
Dallas judge Clay Jenkins told ABC today that a legal quarantine order was placed on the home after the family tried to break out of the apartment.
However MailOnline reported on Wednesday that three individuals - a man in his twenties with a roll of garbage bags and two women - came and left the apartment.
The quarantined woman said that she has been given no instructions by the Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) on how to dispose of the contaminated bedding in the home or what the family would do for food.
She said that two CDC workers who visited the home on Wednesday brought sandwiches.
Following the shocking revelation, the CDC said on Thursday afternoon that medical contractors would be visiting the home to deal with the contaminated materials.
The Ivy Apartment complex was also being power-washed to ease the concerns of residents.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Judge Jenkins said that several days supply of food was being delivered to the quarantined family members who were being treated with the 'utmost respect and dignity'.
A map of North Dallas in Texas reveals the proximity of where Mr Duncan was staying in relation to the hospital and schools as officials said today the Ebola patient may have come in contact with up to 100 people
EBOLA PATIENT'S BROTHER CLAIMS 'HE HAD NO IDEA HE HAD EBOLA WHEN HE CAME TO US'
The half-brother of Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who is currently in Texas Presbyterian Hospital in a stable condition with Ebola, said today that his brother did not intentionally come to America with the deadly virus.
Wilfred Smallwood (pictured above) told CNN that his brother, who he had not seen in nine years, had been planning to come to the U.S. for a long time and had only just received his visa.
Mr Smallwood's son is one of those quarantined in Dallas. Mr Smallwood, who lives in Phoenix, said today he was very worried for his son and his brother but couldn't understand why Texas Presbyterian Hospital had let him leave.
Louise said she told a check-in receptionist and a nurse that he had recently come from Liberia, a known Ebola 'hot zone'.
The mother said that she did not initially think that Mr Duncan was suffering from Ebola but perhaps malaria.
She said the couple did not discuss Ebola despite the fact that Mr Duncan had recently traveled from the stricken region.
The hospital gave Mr Duncan antibiotics and sent him home, where he became even sicker, making frequent trips to the bathroom.
Louise said Mr Duncan stayed in the apartment but she cannot be certain because she left during the day to go to work.
She told CNN that she is very worried but keeps praying and has spoken Mr Duncan via telephone from his quarantine unit at Texas Presbyterian where his condition remains stable.
Texas health officials said around 100 people may have come into contact with Mr Duncan and they are being questioned.
Authorities have confirmed 12 people had direct contact with Mr Duncan including five children.
Some parents have pulled their children out of four affected Dallas schools after learning that five students may have come into contact with Mr Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S.
School administrators appealed for calm as none of the children have shown symptoms and are being monitored at home, where they will likely remain for three weeks.
Parents and pupils at schools in Dallas where children were possibly infected with Ebola said that they were appalled at how the crisis was being handled.
The schools were named as Tasby Middle School, Dan D. Rogers Elementary, Lowe Elementary and Conrad High School.
Parents and students were only told on Wednesday that their schools had been affected - a day after the public were informed that a patient had the deadly virus.
They were given a letter and a fact sheet but were told it was 'all fine' and that children had to remain in school.
But Marcie Pardo and other parents left L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary indicating that they were taking no chances and would keep their children home for the rest of the week.
'Kids pretty much touch everything. Not everyone washes their hands,' Pardo said. 'It's the contagious part that gets me worried.'
Nikki Turner, 31, who has a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old at Tasby Middle School and Conrad High told MailOnline on Thursday that the school authorities 'could be doing a lot more'.
She said: 'All I've been told was in a phone call on Wednesday when they said the children who had it are being taken out and it was all OK.
'I had to take my children to hospital last night for blood tests to make sure they're alright. They are not telling us enough, they need to tell me more.'
Two signs taped to a closed off driveway in front of Emmett J. Conrad High School read, 'All Traffic Go Around Back' on Wednesday, in Dallas. Authorities pleaded for calm after five students who had contact with a man diagnosed with Ebola are being monitored but are showing no symptoms of the disease
A letter from Tasby Middle School on Wednesday aimed to reassure parents that the school was taking Ebola precautions
Ebola isn't contagious until symptoms appear, and then it can spread only by close contact with a patient's bodily fluids.
Ms Pardo said that knowledge makes her feel better, but that she still took her eight-year-old daughter, Soriah, home from school early, along with her cousin.
Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles said on Wednesday the district is taking an 'abundance of caution' and would add more health workers to keep watch for symptoms among students.
At the affected schools, cleaning teams in hazmat suits were seen scrubbing the hallways, Kstp.com reported.
'The students didn't have any symptoms, so the odds of them passing on any sort of virus is very low,' Miles said.
However tensions have already risen among some students.
A man pushes a wheelbarrow containing a woman thought to be a victim of the Ebola virus at a treatment center at Island hospital in Monrovia on Thursday
Mercy Kennedy, nine, cries as community activists approach her outside her home in Monrovia, a day after her mother was taken away by an ambulance to an Ebola ward. Neighbors wailed on Thursday upon learning that Mercy's mother had died; she was among the cluster of cases that includes Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man now hospitalized in Texas
Tasby pupil Francisco Garcia, 14, described a scene of chaos to MailOnline on Wednesday as pupils found out through gossip rather than an official announcement.
He said: 'One kid was telling everyone that somebody had Ebola in school but nobody believed him. We said that Ebola was something that happens in Africa'
'We were all joking about it and touching each other and saying you have Ebola.
'Then our health sciences teacher told us it was true and told us not to panic. There was not announcement or anything. They just let us out floor by floor at the end of the day.'
His friend Angela Gandy, 14, added: 'They have not had any doctors in to check on us. One of my friends' mums took her out of school and is keeping her there for 21 days.'
Evelyn Barrientos, 12, a pupil at Tasby, said that there had been no doctors in the school to check up on them.
She said: 'I think they should be keeping us away from school. If it was up to me I would not be here. I don't think they are taking it as seriously as they should.'
Her mother Maria Arredondo, 39, added: 'I'm scared. I'm worried for my daughter'.
A letter handed out to parents of students at Tasby on Wednesday warned parents that one of school's students may have had contact with the Ebola patient and had been advised to stay home from classes.
The note reassured parents that their children were not in 'imminent danger' and that health measures were being put in place. Additional nurses would be at the school to watch children who report fever or flu-like symptoms and the school building would be thoroughly cleaned each night as a precaution.
Candis Holt, a mother of a kindergarten student at L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary school, shows a piece of paper handed to her by the school with frequently asked questions about the Ebola virus after she dropped her child off today
Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles speaks as Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (second left) and others listen at a media conference at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on October 1
Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 7,100 people in West Africa, and led to more than 3,300 deaths have been linked to the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
Symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus.
Details of his treatment have not been revealed but Mr Duncan is reportedly not being treated with the experimental serum ZMapp - because there is none left.
It was not exactly clear how the Ebola patient knew the children, but his sister Mai Wureh said he had been visiting with family including two nephews.
Officials have not revealed the ages of the children who had contact with the man.
The mounting panic in Dallas comes as new details about the severity of Mr Duncan's condition were revealed including that he was 'vomiting all over the place' when he was eventually admitted to hospital on Sunday - four days are showing symptoms of Ebola.
One neighbor, Mesud Osmanovic, told NBC that Mr Duncan was 'throwing up all over the place' outside the apartment block as he was helped into an ambulance while his hysterical family looked on.
Mr Duncan's family were among the original 18 people being monitored after exposure to the man along with the ambulance crew who transported him to hospital.
The three crew members all tested negative for Ebola on Wednesday but have been placed in 'reverse isolation' at their homes for the next 21 days as a precaution.
Ambulance 37 which transported him to the hospital has been cordoned off. There are concerns after it was used to move patients for two days after the Ebola patient but hospital officials have reassured citizens that it was properly sterilized.
State officials delivered a legal order on Wednesday night to the family of Mr Duncan, ordering them to stay home until October 19 and not have any visitors without approval, officials said.
'We have tried and true protocols to protect the public and stop the spread of this disease,' said Dr. David Lakey, Texas health commissioner.
'This order gives us the ability to monitor the situation in the most meticulous way.'The Liberian national had traveled to the U.S. from Liberia on September 20 to visit his family, traveling via Brussels in Belgium.
A security patrol car cruises the parking lot outside the Ivy Apartments where a Liberia man, who was infected with the deadly Ebola virus was staying with family in North Dallas, Texas before being hospitalized
Ambulance 37 which transported him to the hospital has been cordoned off. There are concerns after it was used to move patients for two days after the Ebola patient but hospital officials have reassured citizens that it was properly sterilized.
The Liberian national had traveled to the U.S. from Liberia on September 20 to visit his family, traveling via Brussels in Belgium.
Mr Duncan's sister, Mai Wureh, confirmed on Wednesday that her brother had been hospitalized with Ebola
Mr Duncan began to develop symptoms of Ebola on September 24, four days after arriving in the U.S.
He first went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on September 26 where he told a nurse that he was visiting from a West African country in the so-called 'Ebola hot zone'.
Mr Duncan underwent basic blood tests but not an Ebola screening.
The 42-year-old was sent home with antibiotics for a 'low-grade virus', a critically-missed opportunity to prevent others being exposed to the disease.
He was finally quarantined on Sunday - a week after arriving in the U.S.
It also raised the frightening prospect that he was mixing freely with others for a full four days while showing symptoms of the virus - the time when Ebola is most contagious.
Texas Presbyterian officials confirmed on Wednesday that information that Mr Duncan had been in an area of Ebola outbreak 'was not fully communicated throughout the whole team'.
As health officials scrambled to contain the infection, Texas Governor Rick Perry said at a hospital press conference on Wednesday that he had 'full confidence' in Texas medical teams when it came to the safety and welfare of citizens, adding that only those who came in close contact with the patient when he was contagious were at risk.
Mr Duncan, from Monrovia, is the first person to develop symptoms of Ebola in the U.S. He is being treated in isolation at a Texas hospital
Mr Duncan was sent home from Texas Presbyterian Hospital last week after presenting with Ebola symptoms. A doctor confirmed on Wednesday that a nurse asked Mr Duncan on his first visit whether he had been in an area affected by the Ebola outbreak but that the 'information was not fully communicated to the whole team'
According to The New York Times, Mr Duncan worked moving cargo for Fedex in the Liberian capital Monrovia but had recently quit his job and acquired a visa to come to the U.S. where his son reportedly lives.
The Times also revealed that Mr Duncan may have contracted Ebola while helping carry his landlord's seriously ill, pregnant daughter to hospital.
The woman, named by The Times as 19-year-old Marthalene Williams was taken to a hospital on September 15, but turned away because there was no room to treat her. She died the following day.
The landlord's son and three neighbors who came in contact with the woman also died soon afterwards.
The Liberian government said on Wednesday that Mr Duncan showed no signs of fever or symptoms of the virus when he left Liberia for the United States via Brussels on September 19.
The patient showed no symptoms of the disease during his journey - which also included a stop en route in Brussels, Belgium.
Hundreds of passengers were exposed to Mr Duncan after it was revealed that the traveler took at least three flights to get from Liberia to Dallas - because there is no direct flight from Belgium to Texas.
The other flight that Mr Duncan boarded is currently unknown and no details are being released.
United Airlines has said it believes Mr Duncan flew from Brussels to Washington Dulles on Flight 951 before he traveled from Washington Dulles to Dallas Fort-Worth on Flight 822.
Belgium's health ministry said U.S. experts had advised Brussels that the man was not displaying Ebola symptoms and so would not have been in a position to pass on the virus. A spokesman said that Belgium therefore did not need to trace fellow passengers or crew of Brussel Airlines, one of a very few operators still flying to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
A team of CDC 'disease detectives' arrived in Dallas on Wednesday and were going door-to-door to find out who may have come in contact with the man while he was contagious with Ebola.
Residents living in the same apartment block that is 'ground zero' for the Ebola outbreak in Dallas spoke of their fears.
Despite reassurances from health chiefs that the deadly virus has been contained many residents are fearful that they might have been infected.
Sources within the Dallas Fire Department said the man carrying the Ebola virus was picked up by an ambulance from the Ivy Apartment complex in North Dallas.
Mother-of-three, Elizabeth Rayo, watched the victim being taken out of his flat and pushed on a gurney into the back of an ambulance.
'I could not see his face, but just saw the ambulance outside and he was being loaded in,' she told Mail Online. 'I know he lives in the same block as me, but I do not know his name.'
Ms Rayo said the residents had no idea at the time that the victim had the highly-contagious disease. She did not see any health officials at the complex, which is mostly home to newly, arrived immigrants from Africa and India.
'No one said anything to us. I only found out that this was the place when the media turned up,' she said.
The 29-year-old, who has lived at the Ivy Apartments for two years, said: 'Of course I am very worried. I have three children. If the man had Ebola we should have been told. We should have been allowed to leave.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
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