The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. initially went to a Dallas emergency room last week but was sent home, despite telling a nurse that he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa, the hospital acknowledged Wednesday.
The decision by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to release him could have put many others at risk of exposure to the disease before he went back to the ER two days later, after his condition worsened.
Thomas Eric Duncan explained to a nurse Friday that he was visiting the U.S. from Liberia, but that information was not widely shared, said Dr. Mark Lester, who works for the hospital’s parent company.
Instead, the patient was sent home with antibiotics, according to his sister, Mai Wureh, who identified her brother as the infected man. Antibiotics, which target bacteria, are generally ineffective against Ebola, which is caused by a virus.
A day after the man’s diagnosis was confirmed, a nine-member team of federal health officials was tracking anyone who had close contact with him.
The team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was in Dallas to work with local and state health agencies to ensure that those people are watched every day for 21 days.
Transferable Before Symptoms Show
Anyone who came into contact with Dallas Ebola patient Duncan should be concerned, according to Dr. Bill Miller, who is a physician for over 30 years.
“The moment they begin to feel ill, they should seek care and be prepared to be quarantined.” Miller said he is horrified that America is allowing travel from the hot zone in Western Africa, and at the miscommunication inside the hospital.
Texas Governor Rick Perry said in a Wednesday press conference, “The disease cannot be transmitted before having symptoms,” and that Texas is well prepared to handle it, because it is one of only 13 states certified by the CDC to do diagnostics for Ebola.
While it’s accurate that a person is not able to transmit Ebola before symptoms begin, there is a caveat. It’s more of a sliding scale than an on-off switch. A person is beginning to fall ill, and the viral load is increasing inside his body. Somewhere between day two and day 20, the person becomes able to transmit an illness.
