PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: The moment Ebola landed in America. 15 days ago virus victim Thomas Duncan was warmly greeted by a relative at Dallas airport. Today he is fighting for his life and she is just one of a hundred people he put at risk too
- Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, is pictured arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport
- Holds a relative wearing traditional African dress while on the phone
- Is notifying his family members that he will be at their Dallas home shortly
- Was able to make the journey after allegedly lying on health forms in Liberia
- He is in a critical condition in hospital and is being held in isolation
- Texas authorities are still
searching for people who may have been exposed - Scare cases sweeping the nation with 100 potential patients reported today
Standing in the arrivals lounge of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport this is the moment Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan unwittingly brought the deadly virus to the USA.
Pictured moments after he completed his journey from disease-ravaged Liberia, two weeks ago, the 42-year-old smiles, as he is greeted warmly by relatives.
Holding a family member close he calls others on his cell phone to tell them he will shortly be arriving at their home in Dallas.
It follows a journey he was only able to make after he allegedly lied on an airport questionnaire in Liberia about not having any contact with a person infected with the deadly disease.
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Arrival: Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan, 42 greets a woman and phones his family after landing at Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport on September 20th
Dressed in a traditional African costume and with her hair-styled especially for the happy occasion the relative appears pleased to see him.
Looking healthy Mr Duncan shows no signs of the potentially fatal Ebola virus that struck him down just days after he arrived in the USA.
Today the 42-year-old is fighting for his life at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas after doctors confirmed his medical condition had dramatically altered from serious to critical.
Texas Health Resources , which runs the hospital, said in a statement: 'Mr Duncan is in a critical condition.'
However the relative – who MailOnline have decided not to name – appears to have initially been in denial about the risk to her health after her extended family and friends contacted her following Mr Duncan's hospital admission last week.
A friend told MailOnline: 'She is the one who went to pick Thomas Eric Duncan up from the airport.
'They greeted each other, they hugged and held each other, which is only normal. They were pleased to see each other.
'But now everyone has been asking her about what has happened.
'And she has replied; "my Daddy does not have Ebola."
'She said; "Everyone should stop calling me because my dad does not have Ebola."
The relative was urged to undergo medical tests to see if she had become infected by the virus. But she appeared to be reluctant to do so.
The friend told MailOnline: 'She was meant to go for a medical check-up because she was one of the people who had been with him [Thomas Duncan], but she did not.'
It is unclear whether the relative – who is in a stable relationship and has three young children – has since been to see a doctor.
Mr Duncan arrived in Texas on September 20th after passing through two of the busiest airports in the USA - at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and Dulles International Airport in Washington DC.
The Liberian national had earlier passed through Brussels International in Belgium on a flight from the African state's capital Monrovia.
Authorities have claimed he posed no danger to his fellow travelers or anyone who later boarded those planes because he was not displacing any symptoms of the Ebola virus at the time and was therefore not contagious.
Home: After leaving the airport, the 42-year-old went to this apartment in Dallas where he stayed with four members of his family. Hazmat teams decontaminated the area a week after he was diagnosed with Ebola
However the 42-year-old helped to carry pregnant daughter of a neighbour who was dying of Ebola prior to the journey.
Mr Duncan had come to Dallas to marry the mother of his estranged son, Louise Troh, which would have paved the way for him to stay in the USA permanently, it has emerged.
Mark Wingfield, pastor at the Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, where Ms Troh worships, told MailOnline: 'Louise told our senior pastor on Thursday.
The 42-year-old, who is understood to have arrived in the USA on a tourist visa, met Ms Troh in Liberia many years ago, according to Wilshire Baptist church pastor George Mason.
He said: 'They had this child. They had a falling out, and she came to the [United] States.'
The child, Kasiah Duncan, also came to the USA and this week said he had not seen his father since he was aged three. He is a 19-year-old college student at Angelo State University in San Angelo.
Relocated: Two of Duncan's relatives who were quarantined inside the apartment are seen leaving and being moved to another, undisclosed location
Mr Mason added: 'The son hasn't really seen his father for many years.
'I think [Duncan] was seeking reconciliation and hoping they might marry.'
Ms Troh visited the Liberian capital Monrovia, where Mr Duncan was living, in August this year, according to her Facebook page.
Louise Troh's ex-husband Joe Joe Jallah, who met Mr Duncan before he was admitted to hospital, told the Wall Street Journal, that he believed this was his first trip to the USA.
Mr Duncan arrived in Texas on September 20. He began showing symptoms of Ebola three days after his arrival and was admitted to Texas Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday.
Texas health officials have said about 100 people may have come into contact with Mr Duncan.
And today they announced nine family members and health-care workers had had direct exposure to the Ebola patient and that none has had any symptoms of the disease.
Separately, five public school children who had possibly been exposed to the Ebola patient had been kept home from class in recent days while being monitored as a precaution, though none had shown any symptoms, said Mike Miles, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District.
Fears: Officers hand out facemasks at Newark Liberty Airport today, where it was feared a passenger had Ebola. It later turned out he did not
Ebola scare cases are sweeping the nation, with more than 100 potential victims reported to authorities by hospitals in the last few days.
Health workers are on high alert for anybody with links to West Africa - where the disease has killed thousands - who show Ebola-like symptoms, which include vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has been deluged by reports of potential sufferers - but so far none have turned out to be genuine Ebola victims.
Today Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the rush of potential cases came after news of Duncan's infection spread to hospitals, who have been especially vigilant.
The first Ebola diagnosis in the United States 'has really increased attention to what health workers need to do to be alert and make sure a travel history is taken,' Frieden told a news conference.
Quarantined: Thomas Eric Duncan is being treated in isolation in Texas Presbyterian in Dallas
Frieden added that many of the inquiries involved people who had not traveled from West Africa, but that the agency preferred healthcare workers to cast as wide a net as possible.
Today hazmat crews and disease control officials swooped on a plane this afternoon amid Ebola fears prompted by a Liberian man who started vomiting on a flight to Newark Liberty airport.
Passengers were held for hours as the man - thought to be 35 - and his young daughter were rushed off the plane to hospital. Doctors later confirmed that neither of them has the deadly virus.
Hospital authorities said the man, believed to be around 35, instead has an unrelated disease which is easily treatable.
His daughter, believed to be 10, was also taken to hospital amid fears she was carrying the fatal virus. But she showed no symptoms of any illness at all, doctors said.
The governments of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are struggling to contain the worst outbreak on record of the deadly hemorrhagic fever.
The World Health Organization on Friday updated its death toll to at least 3,439 out of 7,492 suspected, probable or confirmed cases.
Red Cross workers carry away the body of a person suspected of dying from the Ebola virus, in the Liberian capital Monrovia. The death toll in West Africa was updated to 3,439 on Friday
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2780855/PICTURE-EXCLUSIVE-Moment-Ebola-victim-arrived-Dallas-greeted-smiling-relative-flight-Liberia-bringing-deadly-virus-American-soil.html#ixzz3FQP2PrS0
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