US to take temperature of travelers at 5 airports.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the US, died at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday at 7:51 a.m.
Duncan, 42, a Liberian citizen, was admitted into isolation at the hospital on September 28 with common symptoms of Ebola: fever, vomiting and diarrhea. He later tested positive for the virus that has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, reported CNN.
He was started on the experimental drug brincidofovir on October 4, but his condition continued to deteriorate. On Tuesday, the hospital reported that Duncan was on a ventilator and his kidneys were failing. He succumbed to the virus today.
“Mr. Duncan succumbed to an insidious disease, Ebola. He fought courageously in this battle,” the hospital said in a statement Wednesday. “Our professionals, the doctors and nurses in the unit, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas community, are also grieving his passing.”
The New York Times reported that Duncan had direct contact with a pregnant woman stricken with Ebola in Liberia on September 15, days before he left for the United States. It’s not known officially how he got infected with the virus.
CNN reported that the other Ebola patients brought to the United States for treatment are still alive. Three have been released from the hospital and one is reportedly in stable condition at The Nebraska Medical Center. Experts estimate the current outbreak in West Africa has around a 71% fatality rate. Supportive therapy can help, but there are no proven cures for the disease.
The CDC recommends Ebola patient’s bodies be cremated, placed in an airtight casket, or buried in a leak-proof bag, as they could infect other people.
The Associated Press reported that the US government plans to begin taking the temperatures of travelers from West Africa arriving at five airports as part of a stepped-up response to the Ebola epidemic.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said an additional layer of screening would begin at New York’s JFK International and the international airports in Newark, Washington Dulles, Chicago and Atlanta. He said the new steps would include taking temperatures and would begin Saturday at JFK.
Earnest said the five airports cover the destinations of 94 percent of the people who travel to the U.S. from the three heavily hit countries in West Africa — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. He estimated that about 150 people would be checked a day under the new procedures.