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As US Ebola Patient Dies, Another Potential Case Emerges

Thomas Eric Duncan pictured in 2011. (Photo: Wilmot Chayee/AP)

As US Ebola Patient Dies, Another Potential Case Emerges

Texas hospital falls under criticism after initially turning Ebola patient away

Developing...

The city of Frisco, Texas announced Wednesday that a second person in the United States is being monitored for potential symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus.

The man has been identified by the media as Sgt. Michael Monning, a deputy who had visited the apartment and had contact with family members, but not Thomas Eric Duncan, who passed away from Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on Wednesday.

The municipality stated that Monning is not "exhibiting signs and symptoms" of the virus at this time. "Frisco firefighter-paramedics are in the process of transporting the patient," reads the statement. "They are also in the process of examining clinical staff and other facility patrons."

"Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas can confirm today that a patient has been admitted to the Emergency Room after reporting possible exposure to the Ebola virus," announced the hospital on Wednesday. "Right now, there are more questions than answers about this case."

Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died just over week after he was diagnosed, hospital authorities announced.

Duncan traveled to the U.S. from Liberia, his home of citizenry, on September 19. He first went to the Texas hospital on Sept. 25, but he was sent home with antibiotics, despite showing Ebola symptoms. Two days later, he was admitted to the hospital and placed in isolation. Starting Saturday, he received the experimental drug Brincidofovir.

The hospital has been heavily criticized for initially turning Duncan away, a decision for which it has offered no clear explanation. Duncan's nephew Joe Weeks told ABC News he felt Duncan had received "unfair" treatment and that the family questioned the failure to send him to Emory Hospital, where other Ebola patients received successful treatment.

Family members, who have not shown symptoms of the virus, remain under quarantine. Louise Troh, Duncan's partner, spoke to Anderson Cooper last week from her home, where she is quarantined along with other family members. She said the CDC failed to follow up adequately, including failing to retrieve the used sheets Duncan slept on, as well as the towel he used.

Also today in Spain, a dog named Excalibur who belonged to an Ebola-infected nurse was euthanized on Wednesday, even as protesters surrounded the Madrid home of the nurse and her husband. An online petition calling for the dog's life to be spared had drawn hundreds of thousands of signatures.

The current Ebola outbreak has killed at least 3,400 people in west Africa, and humanitarian organizations and medical experts have slammed Western governments and institutions such as the World Health Organization for their failure to take aggressive action to curb the epidemic. As the Centers for Disease Control and Obama administration claim the U.S. medical system is prepared for a domestic outbreak, National Nurses United warns hospitals, in fact, are ill-prepared.

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