WASHINGTON — The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died early Wednesday, as the government announced plans to step up screening of travelers at five of the nation’s busiest airports.
Thomas Eric Duncan, who traveled from Liberia late last month and had been fighting for his life in a Dallas hospital, died at 7:51 a.m., according to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Duncan’s case attracted international headlines, revealing gaps in the readiness of U.S. hospitals to deal with Ebola’s arrival here and demonstrating how easily the virus could slip undetected from the epicenter of the outbreak in West Africa to virtually anywhere in the world.
His death also renewed questions about whether the hospital’s decision to initially send Duncan home before admitting him days later not only put others at risk for infection but also hurt his chances for survival.
“It’s devastating,” said Princess Duo, 32, a longtime friend of Duncan’s fiancée. “It’s not just the fact that he’s dead. But it’s just the way in which it happened. That’s what hurts the most.”
As the scene in Dallas shifted from one of desperate hope to one of mourning, government officials outlined new screening measures for travelers entering the country from West Africa in coming days.
They include temperature-taking and questions about exposure to Ebola patients.
“It will give us the ability to isolate, evaluate and monitor travelers as needed,” President Barack Obama said Wednesday in a conference call with state and local officials. “And we’ll be able to collect any contact information that’s necessary.”
The ramped-up screening will begin Saturday at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, which has been used by nearly half of all travelers from the nations hit hardest by the Ebola epidemic during the past year.
The screening will be expanded over the next week to Washington’s Dulles International Airport, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta and Newark’s Liberty International Airport. About 150 passengers a day arrive in the U.S. from the affected areas, federal officials said Wednesday.
Together, the five airports account for nearly 95 percent of travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — the three countries hit hardest by the crisis.
It’s the first time in recent history that the United States has conducted this type of screening. During the SARS epidemic in 2003, staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted visual screenings and observed passengers coming from affected countries for signs of illness.
For the Ebola screening, travelers from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia will be taken to airport areas set aside for screening. Customs and Border Protection staff will take their temperatures, look for signs of illness and ask questions about travel histories and possible exposure to the virus.
The screening areas are not meant as “long-term holding facilities or isolation facilities,” said Chris Paolino, a spokesman for Dulles airport.
Travelers who have a fever, other symptoms or worrisome answers on a health questionnaire will be checked more closely at a separate CDC quarantine station. CDC staff will take their temperature again and evaluate them. Travelers who need additional assessment will be referred to public health authorities. Those who do not require additional checking will be asked to leave their contact information.
Meanwhile, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said Wednesday that it had admitted a man who reported possible exposure to Ebola. CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a briefing Wednesday that the man had no “definite contact with Ebola or definite symptoms of Ebola.” The president of the Dallas County Sheriff’s Association said the patient was a deputy who had entered the apartment where Duncan had been staying.
