Ebola Victim's Journey

"Ebola Victim's Journey From Liberian War to Fight for Life in US"
By: Kevin Sack
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/us/ebola-victim-went-from-liberian-war-to-a-fight-for-life.html?ref=us&_r=0

From 1989 to 2003, the civil war that terrorized Liberia, had left the population 5 percent dead. People tried their best to escape. More than 700,000 fled from the nation. Among the people that fled the nation, was Thomas Eric Duncan. Duncan was the man who brought the ebola virus to the United States. Duncan flew to Dallas, Texas to meet Louise Troh. "The arrival of Ebola with Mr. Duncan put Dallas so on edge that parents kept children home from school and officials with the State Fair of Texas programmed Big Tex, their talking mechanical mascot, to urge fairgoers to wash their hands" (Sack,1). This called for attention from the president and health advisers,  and it started a national debate over whether to restrict travel to and from afflicted countries. "On Sunday, the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, said that Mr. Duncan’s medical condition was quite critical and that he was “fighting for his life" (Sack,1). On September 19, M Duncan prepared to catch a flight to the Belgian capital, where he would then fly to Dallas. He was screened for Ebola at the Monrovia airport. When asked if he had been exposed to ebola in the past 21 days he replied, "no". On September 25, Duncan kept complaining to Troh about the chills, so she drove him to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital . "He arrived in the emergency room with a mild fever of 100.1 degrees and reported having abdominal pain for two days, a sharp headache and decreased urination, according to the hospital. When a nurse took his history, the hospital has reported, he said he had not been around anyone ill but had recently been in Africa" (Sack,1). The nurses did not consider the possibility of Ebola, so Duncan was sent home with antibiotics. He is now fighting for his life and has been in contact with people, which can cause harm to others.