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| Thomas Eric Duncan, who is being treated for Ebola in Dallas, is shown at a wedding in Ghana in a 2011 photo provided by Wilmot Chayee. Photograph: Wilmot Chayee/AP |
THE GUARDIAN 10/6/14
US Ebola patient 'fighting for his life' as authorities find homeless man
- Unidentified man may have had contact with Thomas Duncan
- Victim is not receiving experimental treatments for Ebola
- CDC chief to give a briefing to Barack Obama on Monday
- NBC cameraman with Ebola reported on way to Nebraska
Thomas Duncan, the first person to have been diagnosed with Ebola in the US, is fighting for his life in hospital in Dallas.
On Sunday, Thomas Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said Duncan had “taken a turn for the worse” and was “fighting for his life”. On Saturday, Duncan’s condition worsened from “serious” to “critical”.
Frieden also told reporters that he was scheduled to brief President Barack Obama on Monday as health officials attempt to ensure that the virus others do not contract the virus.
The authorities in Dallas said on Sunday they had located a homeless man who may have had contact with Duncan.
A few hours after officials told a conference call with media the man was missing, a Dallas city spokeswoman, Sana Syed, said he had been located. Officials said the man was not one of 10 people who have definitely had contact with Duncan.
The homeless man, who officials said was in a group of 38 people who may have had contact with Duncan, was said to have shown no signs of Ebola when he was tested on Saturday. Officials say the policy is to monitor the condition people who may have come into contact with an Ebola sufferer for 21 days.
Duncan, who is from Liberia, which with Guinea and Sierra Leone is one of the principal centres of the outbreak – has been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas since last Sunday.
Frieden said it appeared that Duncan was not receiving any of the experimental medicines for the virus.
Doses of the experimental medicine ZMapp were “all gone”, Frieden said, and that the drug, produced by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, is “not going to be available anytime soon”.
Asked about a second experimental drug, made by Canada’s Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp, he said it “can be quite difficult for patients to take.”
Frieden said the doctor and the patient’s family would decide whether to use the drug, but if “they wanted to, they would have access to it.”
“As far as we understand, experimental medicine is not being used,” Frieden said. “It’s really up to his treating physicians, himself, his family what treatment to take.”