As Ebola patient in Texas fights for his life, his family copes with stigma and isolation

EBOLA VICTIM IN DALLAS IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION WHILE FAMILY MEMBERS SUFFER FROM STIGMA AND ISOLATION

WASHINGTON POST

By DeNeen L. Brown, Abby Phillip and Sean Sullivan October 5 at 8:05 PM

DALLAS — As a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola was fighting to survive Sunday in a Texas hospital, his worried family members and others who were in contact with him said they are being ostracized by the local Liberian community, which is struggling to cope with fear, isolation and the stigma associated with the deadly disease.

A cleanup crew on Sunday sanitizes the apartment where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was staying before being admitted to a hospital in Dallas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Thomas Eric Duncan, who traveled to Dallas from Liberia more than a week ago after coming in contact with Ebola in the West African country, was in critical condition in an isolated hospital ward and “fighting for his life,” Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday.

“We understand that his situation has taken a turn for the worse,” he said.

Frieden said he does not believe that Duncan has received any experimental medicines that have been used to treat Ebola. And he would not comment on whether another type of experimental treatment — convalescent serum made from the blood of Ebola survivors — is being used to treat Duncan, referring questions to the hospital caring for him. A spokeswoman for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas did not respond to requests for comment.

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