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Wednesday 8 October 2014
US Ebola patient dies in hospital
Mr Duncan, shown here at a 2011 wedding in Ghana
The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola within the US has died, Texas hospital officials have said.
Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, who caught the virus in his native Liberia, was being kept in isolation in a Dallas hospital and receiving experimental drugs.
Shortly after arriving to Dallas on September 20, he fell ill but was sent home after an initial visit to the emergency room. He was taken back to the hospital on September 28 and has been kept in isolation ever since.
Health officials have identified 10 people, including seven health workers, who had direct contact with Duncan while he was contagious. Another 38 people also may have come into contact with him.
Everyone who potentially had contact with Duncan will be monitored for 21 days, the normal incubation period for the disease which is only transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluid of a patient.
US Secretary of State John Kerry issued an "urgent plea" to all nations to ramp up their response to the fight against Ebola, which has killed over 3,400 people in West Africa.
"More countries can and must step up," Kerry told reporters after talks with his British counterpart Philip Hammond, warning there were "still not enough countries to be able to make a difference."
US Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said agents at airports and other ports of entry were ordered to observe everyone arriving to the US for potential signs of Ebola infection.
Mayorkas did not elaborate on how they would observe people or say when the new measures would begin. He said agents would observe all travelers for "general signs of illness" at the points of entry. He spoke at an airport security conference near Washington on Wednesday.
According to the BBC, Britain will send 750 troops to Sierra Leone to help build an Ebola treatment centre. Without citing sources, the BBC said the troops would be sent as part of Britain's international response to the deadly virus.
The World Health Organisation says Ebola is believed to have killed more than 600 people in Sierra Leone, where there have been more than 2,100 confirmed cases.
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