DALLAS — After hospital officials on Saturday said the condition of the lone Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. has worsened, the woman he came to Texas to visit said she is praying for his recovery.
Louise Troh said that she was not aware until a reporter told her that Thomas Eric Duncan’s condition had been deemed critical and that she had not spoken with him Saturday.
“I pray in Jesus’ name that it will be all right,” Troh said in a telephone interview from the home where she and three others are being isolated.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas didn’t provide any further details or respond to questions about Duncan’s health on Saturday. The hospital has previously said Duncan, who was being kept in isolation, was in serious but stable condition.
Duncan traveled from disease-ravaged Liberia to Dallas last month before he began showing symptoms of the disease that has killed about 3,400 people in West Africa.
Health officials said Saturday that they are monitoring about 50 people who might have had contact with Duncan for signs of the deadly disease. Among those are nine people who are thought to be at a higher risk. None have shown symptoms.
Included in the group being monitored are people who later rode in the ambulance that took Duncan to the hospital last Sunday, said Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Duncan was staying with Troh at a Dallas apartment when he became ill. On Friday, a hazardous-materials crew hauled out items from the apartment in industrial barrels for permanent disposal. That same day, Troh, originally from Liberia, and three others — her 13-year-old son, Duncan’s distant relative and a family friend — were moved to a private residence to be monitored.
The first Ebola diagnosis in the U.S. has raised concerns about whether the disease could spread in the U.S.
Frieden said that they’ve already gotten “well over” 100 inquiries on suspicious cases in recent months. Federal officials said tests have been done on about 15, and all but one — Duncan — were false alarms.
