--- title: Dallas Ebola Patient Improves Slightly description: But he remains in critical condition canonical: https://time.com/3478742/ebola-dallas-patient/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-07T18:39:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:38:16.060Z article:section: Health og:title: Dallas Ebola Patient Improves Slightly og:description: But he remains in critical condition og:url: https://time.com/3478742/ebola-dallas-patient/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b8fb6b6828afa86/69875f21a988ca01076a9a09/ebola-texas-patient.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: Residents Quarantined In Dallas Apartment Where Ebola Patient Had Stayed og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dallas Ebola Patient Improves Slightly twitter:description: But he remains in critical condition twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b8fb6b6828afa86/69875f21a988ca01076a9a09/ebola-texas-patient.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Dallas Ebola Patient Is Getting Slightly Better > 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=e575d13e-8fef-4d51-a939-a7650ed48477&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 7, 2014 6:39 PM UTC  Members of the Cleaning Guys Haz Mat clean up company are seen as they sanitize the apartment where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was staying before being admitted to a hospital on October 6, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. Members of the Cleaning Guys Haz Mat clean up company are seen as they sanitize the apartment where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was staying before being admitted to a hospital on October 6, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 7, 2014 6:39 PM UTC Ebola patient Thomas Duncan’s liver condition has improved, according to the Dallas hospital where he’s being treated, though he remains in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday. Duncan’s liver function declined over the weekend, leading doctors at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to downgrade his status from serious to critical. Duncan is currently on a ventilator receiving kidney dialysis, while on Monday he begun [taking the experimental Ebola drug brincidofovir](http://time.com/3475718/dallas-ebola-experimental-drug/), which the hospital says he will continue to receive. While the slight uptick in Duncan’s status marks a sign of hope for his eventual recovery from the Ebola virus, Duncan’s doctors warn his liver function can still vary over the next few days. It’s also unknown whether the experimental drug is having an effect on Duncan’s status. It hasn’t been treated extensively on humans, so there’s little roadmap data available to which doctors can compare Duncan’s treatment. Like [ZMapp](http://time.com/3453022/ebola-vaccines-are-being-expedited/), the other experimental drug given to some Ebola patients, it’s very difficult to suss out the impact of a drug that has not undergone human clinical trials. There’s no way to know for certain if a drug is helping, hindering, or irrelevant to a patient’s care. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a press conference Tuesday that progress in the global fight against Ebola is being seen in Texas and abroad. So far, the 48 people with whom Duncan had some level of contact in Dallas remain healthy, Frieden said. Frieden also confirmed that the CDC will be bolstering airport screenings for travelers headed to or from areas known to be Ebola hotspots, most notably West Africa. “We are working very intensely on screening,” Frieden said. “We are looking at that entire process and seeing what more can be done.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3478742/ebola-dallas-patient/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3478742/ebola-dallas-patient/"},"headline":"The Dallas Ebola Patient Is Getting Slightly Better","datePublished":"2014-10-07T18:39:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:38:16.060Z","description":"But he remains in critical condition","url":"https://time.com/3478742/ebola-dallas-patient/","keywords":["ebola","CDC","Dallas","Liberia","Ebola outbreak"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b8fb6b6828afa86/69875f21a988ca01076a9a09/ebola-texas-patient.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b8fb6b6828afa86/69875f21a988ca01076a9a09/ebola-texas-patient.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Residents Quarantined In Dallas Apartment Where Ebola Patient Had Stayed","caption":"Residents Quarantined In Dallas Apartment Where Ebola Patient Had Stayed","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3478742/ebola-dallas-patient/","name":"The Dallas Ebola Patient Is Getting Slightly Better"}}]}] ```