| CNN | - |
(CNN)
-- The quarantined partner of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan should
be moved with her family out of the Texas apartment where Duncan became
sick with the virus and where his sweat-stained sheets were still on the
bed, the Dallas County director ...
Quarantined family in Ebola patient's apartment should be moved, judge says
updated 8:09 PM EDT, Thu October 2, 2014
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Partner: Staff told twice Duncan came from Liberia during first hospital visit
- Duncan said he didn't come into contact with Ebola sufferers in Liberia, she says
- Judge wants to see quarantined family "moved to better living conditions"
- "It doesn't sound like they're being looked after," Ebola expert says of family
Anderson Cooper's interview with Louise,
the partner of Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, will air on
CNN's "AC360" tonight.
(CNN) -- [Breaking news update at 8:09 p.m. ET]
The partner of Thomas
Eric Duncan said Thursday that, a week earlier, she'd twice told staff
at a Dallas hospital that he'd come from Ebola-ravaged Liberia. Duncan
was allowed to leave with an antibiotic about four hours after going to
the hospital, said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her
first name, Louise.
After arriving in the
United States from Liberia, Duncan told his now-quarantined partner
"that he didn't come (in contact) with anybody with Ebola," the woman
told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Duncan appeared sick with
a headache and fever on Tuesday, September 23, three days after he
arrived in the United States, the woman said. Days later, he was the
first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
[Original story published at 6:25 p.m. ET]
The quarantined partner of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan
should be moved with her family out of the Texas apartment where Duncan
became sick with the virus and where his sweat-stained sheets were
still on the bed, the Dallas County director of homeland security said.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, also director
of the county's Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said
officials are working on that relocation after Duncan's girlfriend told
CNN of being forced to live with distressing living conditions.
Jenkins acknowledged "some hygiene issues" in the apartment.
"I would like to see
those people moved to better living conditions," Jenkins told CNN's Jake
Tapper on Thursday afternoon. "We are working on that. I would like to
move them five minutes ago."
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The partner, who asked
to be identified only by her first name, Louise, is quarantined with one
of her children younger than 13 and two nephews in their 20s because
they were in the apartment when Duncan became ill, she told CNN's
Anderson Cooper.
She also doesn't know
what to do with Duncan's towels, so she stowed them in plastic bags,
Cooper said. Cooper's interview with Louise will air Thursday evening on
CNN's "AC360˚."
"This is a woman of strong faith," Cooper said of the quarantine. "She's praying a lot."
In the wake of Louise's
revelations about Duncan's sheets and towels, a medical waste contractor
was on the way to her apartment, a CDC official said Thursday.
The official did not
explain why the contractor is on its way only now, as Duncan was removed
from the apartment on Sunday by ambulance and taken to the hospital.
Duncan, a 42-year-old
Liberian citizen, is in serious condition in a Dallas hospital, a
spokeswoman said. As of Thursday, the family members weren't showing
symptoms of the Ebola virus, officials said.
Jenkins acknowledged problems with Louise's apartment but defended the overall government response.
"We have some hygiene
issues that we are addressing in that apartment," Jenkins said earlier
in the day. "Those people in the apartment are part of Dallas County,
and they're going to be treated with utmost respect and dignity in this
unusual situation.
"We are working to get the response, which has been a good response, strengthened every hour of the day," the judge said.
On Thursday evening, the
apartment complex was experiencing a blackout after a storm struck and a
transformer blew. Without air conditioning, residents opened their
doors.
Louise's quarantine
Louise, a caregiver,
sometimes refers to Duncan as her husband and sometimes as the father of
at least one of her children, Cooper said. "They're not legally
married, but they clearly have some sort of relationship."
Forced to stay in remain
in her apartment, Louise is worried, not knowing what to do and waiting
on federal health officials, Cooper said. She and her family will be
quarantined for 21 days, and she's frequently taking her family members'
temperatures as well as her own.
"She doesn't know how
she's going to get food into the apartment. She was told she said maybe
the Red Cross would come by. She's still waiting for that," Cooper said.
"Some health officials
brought sandwiches last night, but she hasn't had anything today,"
Cooper said. "She's certainly kind of at loose ends and is obviously
extremely worried."
Later in the day
Thursday, officials were delivering food to Louise and her three family
members, said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of
State Health Services.
The apartment is being monitored with local law enforcement, Lakey said.
Judge Jenkins said that at one point, Louise and her family especially "were noncompliant with the request to stay home."
Mayor Mike Rawlings
acknowledged other problems outside the apartment building, blaming the
media and saying "it is as best disorganized out there."
The city has embedded police at the apartment complex "to make sure there is calm," the mayor said.
Sheets and towels used by Duncan still in apartment
The Dallas apartment where Louise and her relatives are quarantined.
Despite the close
contact, Louise "does not feel that she came into any contact with any
(bodily) fluids" from Duncan, Cooper said.
"She says he didn't
vomit on her. She wasn't cleaning up after him. She said he was very
much sort of prideful, would take care of himself, go into the bathroom
when he had diarrhea," Cooper said.
Louise and her family
are in isolation with sheets and towels used by the Ebola-stricken
Duncan, Cooper said. Louise did use bleach to clean her apartment, "but
it's not clear to me how systematic the cleaning was," he said.
Questions about response
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta
said the continuing presence of the sheets, on which Duncan may have
transmitted the virus through sweating, are disturbing.
"With the sheets still
being on the bed, that obviously is a concern," Gupta said. "We've
talked about the fact that this virus can live outside the body, can
live on surfaces. It's unlikely for it to be transmitted to someone else
that way.
"But why take a chance?" Gupta added.
Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in a photo from his Facebook page.
Wilfred Smallwood, Duncan's half-brother, said his 21-year-old son is among those quarantined in Louise's apartment.
"He lived there with
them, too," Smallwood said Thursday of his son. "I just talked to them
this morning -- the woman and my son and all of them."
His son told him that "we all be OK," Smallwood said.
Duncan came to the
United States for the first time September 20 so that he could "help his
son" and visit his family, Smallwood said.
Smallwood said he became
disturbed when told of Louise's accounts about the his brother's
sweat-stained sheets in the apartment and the lack of food.
"I'm skeptical now" about the CDC response, Smallwood said. "That worries me now, yes."
Lakey, the Texas health commissioner, also said a crew will be cleaning and sanitizing the apartment.
Nonetheless, Gupta expressed alarm about the belated visit by the CDC waste contractor to Louise's apartment.
"It is hard to believe (the oversight) and there aren't good explanations here," Gupta said.
"As to why it already hadn't happened ... I would be curious," Gupta said. "Is this a dropped ball? We don't know."
One Ebola expert, Dr. Alexander van Tulleken,
also said the federal response to the first Ebola case on U.S. soil
seemed troubling. "So far we don't seem to reacting as well as we
could," he said.
About Louise and her family, van Tulleken added: "It doesn't sound like they're being looked after at the moment."
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