U.S. BOTCHING FIRST EBOLA RESPONSE

U.S. BOTCHING FIRST EBOLA RESPONSE “More than six months after an outbreak of Ebola began its rampage through West Africa, local and federal health officials have displayed an uneven and flawed response to the first case diagnosed in the United States. In the latest indication, state and local authorities confirmed Thursday that a week after a Liberian man fell ill with Ebola in Dallas, and four days after he was placed in isolation at a hospital here, the apartment where he was staying with four other people had not been sanitized and the sheets and dirty towels he used while sick remained in the home. County officials visited the apartment without protection Wednesday night.” Relatives tell of Thomas Duncan’s swift decline. Liberia will prosecute Duncan for lying on his questionnaire to get into the U.S., and Duncan’s travel shows the difficulty of fully monitoring all international travelers. Up to 100 people, including children, could have had contact with Duncan before he was quarantined, according to health officials. The hospital that initially sent Duncan home blamed the error on a recent computer software update that failed to flag a nurse’s notes about his travel. Attendance at Dallas schools was down from fear of contagion. As a refresher, here’s how one contracts Ebola. And a NBC News freelance cameraman has been diagnosed with Ebola in Liberia, and he and the rest of the team are flying back to the U.S. to be examined and quarantined. [NYT]