Thomas Eric Duncan, the lone American victim of Ebola, has passed away from effects of the disease that is now becoming an epidemic in West Africa.
The Liberian man died at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, after being diagnosed with the disease toward the end of September.
When Duncan took off from Liberia's capital, Monrovia, he reported that he had not been in contact with anyone suffering from the disease. Later investigation revealed he had contact with a pregnant woman whom he helped into a taxi, and who later perished from Ebola.
"The past week has been an enormous test of our health system, but for one family it has been far more personal. Today they lost a dear member of their family. They have our sincere condolences, and we are keeping them in our thoughts," David Lakey, Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner, stated in a press release.
Health care workers and other people who had contact with the patient are being closely monitored for symptoms of the disease. Up to 48 people may have been exposed through contact with Duncan. Of those, the 10 at highest risk are being kept in voluntary isolation. Others are being regularly monitored for fever.
Symptoms of Ebola include vomiting, fever and diarrhea. The virus that causes the disease is spread through body fluids, including saliva and blood. On Sept. 25, Duncan appeared at the hospital, but doctors sent him home with a prescription for antibiotics. Three days later, he had to be rushed back, by ambulance, to the health care center, where he was diagnosed with the deadly disease.
Duncan waited almost a week after being admitted before doctors ordered treatment with an experimental drug being used to treat Ebola. The new medicine was quickly provided to four other Ebola patients being treated in the United States, each of whom is an American citizen.
Delays in diagnosis and specialized treatment could have played a role in the case, some critics charge, including one of the nation's best-known civil rights leaders.
"I would tend to think that those who do not have insurance, those who do not have Medicaid, do not have the same priorities as those who do," the Rev. Jesse Jackson told reporters.
At least one family member believes the reason for the delays was due to nationality, not money.
"We feel he didn't get the medicine and treatment for the disease because he's African and they don't consider him as important as the other three," Josephus Weeks, nephew of Thomas Eric Duncan, stated during a press conference. Duncan is a Liberian national.
Hospital officials insist he was treated without regard to race or ability to pay.
Meanwhile, a Spanish nursing assistant in Madrid is believed to have contracted Ebola after helping treat one of two Spanish missionaries that had flown to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Both men died. The woman, Teresa Romero Ramos, may have caught the virus due to a lapse in safety protocol and precautions, says Dr. William Schaffner of the Vanderbilt's Department of Preventive Medicine.
The doctor treating the nursing assistant says Ramos may have been exposed to the disease while taking off her protective suit. She told the doctor she may have touched her face with the contaminated gloves she was wearing after removing the suit. She was not quarantined for several days after becoming ill, raising concerns about Spain's handling of the symptoms.
