Texas Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, may have had contact with up to 100 people

The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. initially went to a Dallas emergency room last week but was sent home, despite telling a nurse that he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa. (AP)

By Abby Phillip, Amy Ellis Nutt and Mark Berman October 2 at 11:49 AM

Texas health officials said Thursday that there are “about 100” people who may have had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the man being treated in a Dallas-area hospital for Ebola.
“We are working from a list of about 100 potential or possible contacts and will soon have an official contact tracing number that will be lower,” Texas Department of State Health Services spokeswoman Carrie Williams said in a statement.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we’re starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient’s home. The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection.”
Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson said none of those people have shown symptoms of the illness thus far. Only the immediate family members of the victim are being regularly monitored for Ebola symptoms; they’ve been ordered to stay at home and avoid contact with others.
On Wednesday, health officials said 12-18 people, including five children who attend four different Dallas-area schools, may have had contact with Duncan.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has reached the United States, as officials confirm one case in Dallas. Here's how U.S. health officials plan to stop the virus. (Gillian Brockell and Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)

“Now the number has increased in terms of number of contacts,” Thompson said in a phone interview on Thursday.
The man, who was identified by family members on Wednesday, is the first person to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States.
He traveled from Liberia to the United States changing planes at the Brussels airport and at the Dulles International Airport in the Washington, D.C. area, before arriving in Dallas on Sept. 20. But it was not until four days later, on Sept. 24, that he began experiencing abdominal pain and a fever.

The next night, Sept. 25, Duncan sought care at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, but was sent home with antibiotics, his sister Mai Wureh told the Associated Press. A hospital official acknowledged on Wednesday that nurses and doctors should have isolated Duncan based on his symptoms and his recent travel to Liberia, where the Ebola outbreak is widespread.
“Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team,” said Mark C. Lester, executive vice president of the health-care system that includes Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. “As a result, the full import of that information wasn’t factored into the clinical decision-making.”
Days later on Sept. 28, an ambulance was called to a residence in The Ivy Apartments community in Dallas. Duncan, by then, was seriously ill, and according to Reuters, was seen vomiting multiple times outside the complex.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Texas state health officials confirmed in separate tests that Duncan had Ebola. He was isolated at the Texas hospital.

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As the overall death toll has risen to more than 3,000, the first U.S. case of the Ebola virus is diagnosed in Texas.

Oct. 1, 2014 Health workers in protective gear remove the body of a woman suspected to have died from the Ebola, near the area of Freeport in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Abbas Dulleh/AP

Health officials are working rapidly to track down anyone who may have come into contact with Duncan, particularly after he began showing symptoms and was contagious.
A friend of the family said there was a cookout “for a lot of people” on Sept. 20 that Duncan attended. “That’s what we do when someone comes. We had a welcoming for him,” the friend said, who asked not to be identified.
Aaron Yah, 40, who saw Duncan on Sept. 20, the day he arrived in Dallas, said he seemed fine. But when Yah saw him on Sunday at the Ivy Apartments, “he was lying down in bed,” Yah said. “He told me he was sick. He said he was weak and had diarrhea.”

From the list of 100 potential contacts, health workers will determine who had direct contact with the Ebola patient’s fluids, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner. That list may be established by the end of the day, he added.
People confirmed as contacts have their temperatures taken and are asked about their health twice daily for 21 days.
There is no risk to passengers on any of the three flights Duncan took before arriving in Dallas because at that time he was not contagious.
Ebola can only be transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a sick person.

Elahe Izadi contributed to this report.