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Liberia, U.S. Hospital Both Say Ebola Patient Lied About Exposure

Update, 10 p.m. ET: Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital now say Thomas Eric Duncan wasn't honest with them either. When asked if he had been around anyone who had been ill, Duncan told them he had not.

As we wrote Wednesday, Duncan's neighbors in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, believe he was infected while helping a pregnant woman with Ebola to a hospital.

The hospital also said the nurse who interviewed Duncan on his Sept. 20 arrival at the hospital correctly entered into the system his recent travel to West Africa, but that a flaw in the electronic health records system prevented physicians from receiving that information.

"The full import of that information wasn't factored into the clinical decision-making," Dr. Mark Lester, a hospital official, said Wednesday.

The man returned to the same hospital this week, where he was admitted, diagnosed with Ebola and placed in isolation. On Thursday, Texas health officials said that about 100 "potential contacts" linked to Duncan were being monitored for symptoms of the disease.

Original post:

Liberian officials say they will prosecute Thomas Eric Duncan, the man who was diagnosed in Dallas with Ebola, for allegedly lying on a health questionnaire before boarding a flight out of the country, The Associated Press reports.

Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the board of directors of the Liberia Airport Authority, said Duncan had answered "no" to a question asking whether he had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of anyone who had died in an Ebola-affected area.

"We expect people to do the honorable thing," Kesselly said, according to the AP.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Neuman is a reporter and editor, working mainly on breaking news for NPR's digital and radio platforms.
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