The Texas Ebola patient’s half-brother said Thursday there was no evidence his loved one came to the U.S. for treatment or possessed any inkling he had the deadly virus.
Wilfred Smallwood, speaking from Phoenix, told CNN that Thomas Eric Duncan, the 42-year-old infected patient hospitalized in Dallas, had interacted with Mr. Smallwood’s 21-year-old son in Texas and was looking for a job in America before he became seriously ill.
Before he flew to Texas, Mr. Duncan reportedly assisted a woman in Liberia who became gravely ill and died the next day, raising the potential that is how he became infected.
Mr. Smallwood said the woman had fallen down so his half-brother rushed to help, not knowing anything about her condition.
“Ebola is in the system, it’s not on the body,” he told CNN.
Mr. Smallwood said he came to the U.S. in 2005 and had not seen Mr. Duncan for nine years. But hopes for a happy reunion were dashed when Mr. Duncan, sent home by doctors two days earlier, started vomiting Sunday and had to be rushed back to the hospital in Dallas.
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Mr. Smallwood said he was worried about how the case is being handled in Texas, after CNN reported that contractors were just sent out to clean up an apartment where Mr. Duncan had sweated into the sheets.
Mr. Duncan’s partner had described the scene in her apartment to the station’s Anderson Cooper, saying the sheets were still on the bed and she was quarantined with one of her children and two nephews in their 20s.
The woman, identified as “Louise,” said she was confused about what to do next.
“It’ll make anybody skeptical,” Mr. Smallwood said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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