US Ebola patient 'carried convulsing woman four days before flying from Liberia to Texas'

The first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States told hospital staff of his Liberia stay but was still allowed to leave hospital.

17:09 02 October 2014

Health officials in Texas have confirmed on that the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in America was not quarantined in hospital despite revealing that he recently travelled from West Africa. He was allowed to leave and was only admitted when he returned two days later.

Thomas Eric Duncan told a nurse at a Dallas emergency room the he visited Liberia, which has been ravaged by the Ebola  outbreak. The victim’s sister said that he was sent home with a course of antibiotics.

Officials are now monitoring 12-18 people who may have come in contact with Duncan, including five school-age children and three members of the Dallas-Forth Worth ambulance crew that transported him to the hospital.

A witness, 21-year-old Mesu Osmanovic, said: “When the ambulance came his whole family were all screaming, he got outside and he was throwing up all over the place … when he was throwing up he was trying to walk and he couldn’t walk.”