DALLAS – Thomas Eric Duncan, the Dallas Ebola patient, came to the United States to marry his girlfriend, a local pastor says. Days later, Duncan was hospitalized in isolation, and his girlfriend is in quarantine.
Duncan arrived in Dallas from Liberia last month, with plans to visit Louise Troh and “start a new life in America” with her, according to an email sent Friday to the congregation of Wilshire Baptist Church, where Troh is a member.
“Louise and other members of her extended family are in isolation now because of their contact with Mr. Duncan,” said George Mason, who the church’s website identifies as a senior pastor. “You can imagine how frightening this must be for all of them, mixed with the sadness of Mr. Duncan’s diagnosis.”
Troh and the others staying at the apartment were moved by Dallas County officials yesterday to an undisclosed location with better living conditions. While none has shown symptoms of the disease, according to the officials, they must be monitored by medical professionals for 21 days from their first exposure to the virus.
“Where they were living was a terrible place,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said at a news briefing. “They deserved better than that.”
The family is getting toiletries, blankets and three hot meals a day, said Lauren Mish, a spokeswoman with Dallas County said Saturday in an email. She said no one else has developed symptoms.
In a text-message conversation, Josephus Weeks, who described himself as Duncan’s nephew, said the Ebola patient’s condition was worsening, and that he had become too weak to even talk on the telephone with relatives.
Duncan arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20 and developed symptoms four days later. He went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas’s emergency room for treatment on Sept. 25 and was sent home with antibiotics, before returning in an ambulance three days later.
Health officials have said Duncan is in critical condition, and are monitoring about 50 people who may have had exposure to the disease. So far, none has had symptoms.
A call to a home phone number listed for Louise Troh was not answered. Attempts to reach Mason at email and phone contacts listed on the church’s website were unsuccessful.
