--- title: Ebola Patient in Texas Is Not Allowed Any Visitors description: Thomas Eric Duncan remains in serious condition at a Dallas hospital canonical: https://time.com/3457335/ebola-america-thomas-eric-duncan-liberia/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-02T19:26:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:01:44.447Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola Patient in Texas Is Not Allowed Any Visitors og:description: Thomas Eric Duncan remains in serious condition at a Dallas hospital og:url: https://time.com/3457335/ebola-america-thomas-eric-duncan-liberia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a0bc530d39f7705/6986a6bfadae44ec915454f6/ebola-texas-health-presbyterian.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4096 og:image:height: 2304 og:image:alt: The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where a patient with the Ebola virus is being treated in Dallas on Oct. 1 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola Patient in Texas Is Not Allowed Any Visitors twitter:description: Thomas Eric Duncan remains in serious condition at a Dallas hospital twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a0bc530d39f7705/6986a6bfadae44ec915454f6/ebola-texas-health-presbyterian.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ebola Patient in Texas Is Not Allowed Any Visitors > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=6b8ba2e3-d84c-44dc-ae4c-a97f7e548583&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EJ3m56cA.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2014-10-02. Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 2, 2014 7:26 PM UTC  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 2, 2014 7:26 PM UTC Thomas Eric Duncan remains in serious condition at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, kept under close watch by law enforcement officials. He’s not allowed any visitors, but is communicating with family and friends via phone. In a news conference on Thursday, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said CDC-trained health officials in Monrovia, Liberia, took Duncan’s temperature before he boarded a plane on Sept. 19 to begin his journey to the United States. As part of the screening process to prevent the spread of Ebola into this country, passengers’ temperatures are taken and those with fevers are pulled off the flight. Duncan’s temperature, according to Frieden, was 97.3 (or 36.3C) — normal. Frieden said more than a dozen people from the countries most affected by Ebola were prevented from boarding flights to the U.S. in September. Duncan did not develop fever and symptoms until four days after he arrived in Dallas. The four people in the apartment where he stayed are now under quarantine, prevented from leaving their home by a law enforcement officer stationed outside the complex. If any of the individuals violate the order, a formal court order will be issued. None of the people are symptomatic, but, said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, he “had concern about our ability to be confident that monitoring was going to take place the way we needed it to take place.” People who might have had contact with Duncan are being monitored with twice daily temperature checks and, he said, without elaborating on the reasons, “we felt this \[quarantine order\] was needed.” Food is being delivered to the four people in the apartment and Lakey said a cleaning service had been found to thoroughly clean the residence as well. Health officials visited the apartment when Duncan was admitted to the hospital, and helped the residents bag Duncan’s belongings, along with trash and towels that he used. In an interview with _Anderson Cooper 360_ **_°_** due to air Thursday evening, however, Duncan’s partner, Louise, with whom he stayed and is one of those quarantined, said the sheets he used were still on the bed. She and the other four people in the apartment were also instructed about how to decontaminate areas that Duncan might have touched, until more thorough cleaning could be done. For now, Lakey said, “I have no intention to put other individuals under a control \[quarantine\] order.” Together with the CDC, the Texas health department is monitoring 100 people with daily temperature checks; most are unlikely to be at high risk of developing Ebola, and only about a dozen had direct contact with Duncan. The state is also investigating how Duncan could have been sent home after his first visit to hospital, when he had a fever and told the nurse that he had recently arrived from Liberia. ## Transcript Now that the first case of Ebola has been diagnosed on American soil, what's next? How can we keep the virus from spreading? Health officials are now turning to a process known as contact tracing to figure out who else might have been exposed to the virus. The likeliest candidates are the medical technicians who treated him. That's because Ebola is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids, which health workers could have come in contact with while treating the patient. Beyond that are the patient's family members or people who have been living in close quarters with him since he developed the symptoms, including fever. Vomiting or diarrhea. These people will be monitored for 21 days, which is the incubation period of Ebola, to see if they develop similar symptoms. They won't be quarantined, but they might be asked to avoid traveling out of the country and spending time in crowded public areas. If anyone in either of these rings appears infected. Health officials will extend their monitoring to include anyone those people have been in contact with. Including their family members, school classmates, or work colleagues, until no more Ebola symptoms are discovered. Beyond that, if people in this ring appear infected, they too would be monitored for symptoms for 21 days, and the analysis would spread to their contacts. The passengers on the patient's flights from Liberia to the US aren't considered at high risk of exposure, since he was not experiencing symptoms then. Of course, all of this depends on honest and accurate information from the patient and his contacts about where they have been and with whom. Something that has been an issue in West Africa. There the stigma against Ebola has led patients to flee health volunteers who are attempting to trace contacts or fail to report people they have interacted with. 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