This eediaat. *******************************Ebola Patient in Dallas Lied on Screening Form, Liberian Airport Official Says By NORIMITSU ONISHI OCTOBER 2, 2014 MONROVIA, Liberia — Thomas E. Duncan, the Liberian man who developed Ebola symptoms in Dallas after flying from Liberia to the United States last month, lied about his history of contact with the disease on an airport questionnaire meant to screen out passengers who might be carrying the virus and is subject to prosecution when he returns, Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority, said Thursday. When Mr. Duncan flew out of Roberts International Airport in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, on Sept. 19, he answered “no” to a question about whether he had had contact with any person who might have been stricken with Ebola in the past 21 days, the maximum period of incubation for Ebola, Mr. Kesselly said. “He lied on his form,” Mr. Kesselly said. “If he had answered truthfully, he would have been sent to secondary screening immediately and not allowed to leave.” Mr. Kesselly said Mr. Duncan would be prosecuted upon his return for lying on the questionnaire. Interactive Feature | More Ebola Coverage On Wednesday, in the Monrovia neighborhood where Mr. Duncan lives, neighbors and the parents of Marthalene Williams, 19, a woman who died of Ebola on Sept. 16, said Mr. Duncan had helped the family take her to and from John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital a day earlier after she started convulsing. Ms. Williams, who was seven months pregnant, was turned away from the hospital for lack of space in its Ebola treatment ward, so Mr. Duncan helped carry Ms. Williams from a taxi to her home, holding her legs, after she grew too weak to walk, the family and neighbors said. She died around 3 a.m., hours after she arrived home, said her parents, Amie and Emmanuel Williams. Mr. Duncan left Liberia three days later, flying out of Monrovia to Dallas after a layover in Brussels. Mr. Duncan, who is a family friend and also a tenant in a house owned by the Williams family, rode in the front passenger seat of the taxi, her family said. Ms. Williams, her father and her brother, Sonny Boy, shared the back seat. Sonny Boy Williams became symptomatic about a week ago, around the same time that Mr. Duncan first showed symptoms of Ebola, on Sept. 24. He died on Wednesday shortly after an ambulance came to pick him up from the family home. In addition to the two men, Ms. Williams spread the virus to two other women in the cluster of houses near her family home, volunteers in a local Ebola task force said. One of those women also died on Wednesday. RELATED COVERAGE
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 20:09:57 +0000