Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan told his fiancee the day he was diagnosed last week that he regrets exposing her to the deadly virus and had he known he was carrying Ebola, he would have “preferred to stay in Liberia and died than bring this to you,” a family friend said. 
 
 “He apologized to Louise the day they told him what he had,” said Saymendy Lloyd, a close friend of Louise Troh, the fiancee of Duncan, who is in critical condition and no longer responsive. “He told her, ‘I’m so sorry all of this is happening. . . . I would not put the love of my life in danger.’ ” 
 
 Family members gathered in Dallas and were able to see Duncan on Monday at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital via a laptop camera in his hospital room. “He is not responsive at all. They said he was drugged and they put him in deep sleep,” said Lloyd, who was with the family. 
 
 She said the family members were saddened by the sight of Duncan. 
 
 Lloyd said this was the first time Duncan’s mother, who lives in North Carolina, saw her son since he came to the United States. 
 
 1 of 46 Full Screen Autoplay Close Oct. 7, 2014 Oct. 6, 2014 Oct. 5, 2014 Oct. 4, 2014 Oct. 3, 2014 Oct. 2, 2014 Oct. 1, 2014 Skip Ad × Family of Ebola patient in Texas mourns View Photos The family of Thomas Eric Duncan was devastated by the news of his death. Caption The family of Thomas Eric Duncan was devastated by the news of his death. Oct. 8, 2014 Eric Williams, a Texas congressional candidate, speaks to reporters outside Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas about the death of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan at the hospital. Williams is calling on Gov. Rick Perry (R) to begin an investigation into the treatment of Duncan and the care he received at the hospital. LM Otero/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 “She has not seen him for 12 years, and the first time she saw him was through a monitor,” said Lloyd. “She was very, very emotional. She told him to be strong, that she is praying for him, that she loves him and God is able to do all things.” 
 
 Troh, who is in mandated isolation in Dallas with her 13-year-old son and two other people, spoke by phone to Lloyd. 
 
 Duncan and Troh’s 19-year-old son, Eric Karsiah Duncan, tried to visit his father at the hospital Tuesday evening. 
 
 Speaking later at a news conference at Wilshire Baptist Church, the Angelo State University student thanked his mother’s church members. 
 
 “I’m praying for my family to be okay and my dad makes it out safely,” said Eric Duncan, who had not seen his father since he was 3 in Liberia. “I hope they find a cure for it.” 
 
 As Thomas Duncan fights for his life, Texas health officials are bracing for a critical week in Dallas, where they are watching for any signs that as many as 48 people who had contact with Duncan may develop symptoms of Ebola. Health officials say the incubation period for the disease is 21 days, but it could appear eight to 10 days after exposure. 
 
 Duncan began showing symptoms Sept. 24, when he first sought medical treatment at Texas Presbyterian, three blocks from the home of Troh. Duncan was sent home but was taken back to the hospital by ambulance Sept. 28. Two days later, last Tuesday, a blood test confirmed that he had Ebola. Health officials say the “10-day threshold” for the disease will fall within the next few days. 
 
 View Graphic More than a dozen drugs are being studied for treating Ebola and other filoviruses. 
 
 “This is a critical week. We need to be prepared in Dallas for what could happen if family members become ill,” said David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of Health Services. “We are doing contingency planning and praying for what if. I have been concentrating on what we need to do now to protect Dallas.” 
 
 None of the 10 “high risk” people — including four people who lived in the apartment where Duncan stayed and six health-care workers — have developed symptoms, health officials said. Troh, who was moved to an undisclosed location with the three people who were in the apartment with Duncan, is still well, family members say. On Sunday, members of the Liberian community association were able to take her traditional Liberian food, including jollof rice, foo foo, cassava leaves and plantains. “She called me, ‘I’m eating some traditional Liberian food,’ ” Lloyd said. “She was very happy about that.” 
 
 Health officials say they are continuing to watch 38 other people who had “possible contact” with Duncan and were considered to be at lower risk. Twice a day, health officials are checking the temperature of the 48 people — of whom six are in mandated isolation. 
 
 “They receive one call a day [to ask for a temperature reading] and one visit per day,” said Sana Sayed, a spokeswoman for the city of Dallas. “A health worker makes a physical contact with the 48 people being monitored every single day, seeing them and checking their temperature.” 
 
 Lakey would not discuss why hospital protocols failed to detect Duncan the first time he visited Texas Health Presbyterian with a 101.1 fever, complaining of abdominal pains. The hospital’s decision to send him home put other people at risk. 
 
 “A lot of evaluations will take place to find out what happened on the first presentation to find out why wasn’t a diagnosis made,” Lakey said. 
 
 Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price criticized the hospital for failing to heed warnings sent in July about what protocols hospitals should follow to treat infectious diseases. 
 
 “I said at the outset, Presbyterian is a boutique hospital next to a little Ellis Island,” Price said, referring to the neighborhood where many residents are immigrants. “If you don’t have insurance, you’re not going to get treated. That’s the elephant in the room.” 
 
 Texas Health Resources, the hospital network that includes Texas Health Presbyterian, responded to criticism Tuesday by saying, “He was treated the way any other patient would have been treated, regardless of nationality or ability to pay for care. We have a long history of treating a multicultural community in this area.” 
 
 Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the agency was exploring ways to increase the screening of passengers on both sides of the Atlantic. 
 
 “We’re working very intensively on the screening process,” Frieden said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “We’re looking at that entire process to see what more can be done.” 
 
 While he promised that “additional steps” were coming, Frieden did not elaborate on what that would include. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview Tuesday that Frieden told him that the plan is to have “tougher types of screening on U.S. soil.” 
 
 Still, Frieden said the CDC has had teams on the ground working to strengthen the screening of passengers leaving West Africa. The screening has included taking temperatures, keeping an eye out for other symptoms and having travelers fill out questionnaires. 
 
 He said the CDC methods have been used to screen more than 36,000 people over two months. And of those travelers, a small portion of whom were coming to the United States, only 77 people had a fever or other symptoms that caused them to be taken out of line, he said. “As far as we know, none of those 77 people had Ebola,” Frieden noted. 
 
 Of course, these methods are not perfect, as was made clear when Duncan filled out a questionnaire, had his temperature taken by a person trained by the CDC and boarded multiple flights on his way to Dallas. 
 
 President Obama’s promise of stepped-up screening for Ebola at U.S. airports that handle international flights will fall on the shoulders of the Customs and Border Protection officers who greet passengers arriving from abroad. 
 
 Though they often seem preoccupied with scrutinizing passports and luggage, customs officers are trained to detect signs of illness, and they routinely do just that, officials said. 
 
 “CBP personnel review all travelers entering the United States for general overt signs of illnesses,” the agency said in a statement. 
 
 In addition to visual observations, CBP officers question passengers about their health and are instructed to alert the CDC if a passenger appears to be seriously ill. If a person is believed to have “a possible communicable disease,” they are isolated while the CDC and local authorities conduct the evaluation. 
 
 Federal law requires pilots to radio ahead if a passenger dies or falls ill with certain symptoms. 
 
 “If somebody comes in on a flight that has a fever or any one of those triggers, CDC can insert themselves at any point in the process,” said Rob Yingling, spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which runs Dulles International and Reagan National airports. “They can say [to the pilot], ‘Tell us more about this case,’ or they can actually physically go to the plane.” 
 
 The CDC maintains an office at Dulles and other major airports that handle international flights. 
 
 Meanwhile, up to 4,000 service members are expected to head to West African countries ravaged by the Ebola epidemic. They will be monitored several times a day and, if any of them contract Ebola, they will be flown back to the United States aboard a specially designed plane for treatment. 
 
 Among the tasks laid out for the military is the construction of 17 treatment centers for people with the disease. This will take until the middle of next month, according to Gen. David Rodriguez, chief of U.S. Africa Command. 
 
 Mark Berman, Ashley Halsey III, Dan Lamonthe and Amy Ellis Nutt contributed to this report from Washington. ||||| Photo 
 
 DALLAS — The Liberian man battling the Ebola virus is on a ventilator and receiving kidney dialysis, health officials said Tuesday, but for the first time doctors had some positive news to report about his condition. Family members who were briefed by doctors said they were told Mr. Duncan’s temperature and blood pressure are back to normal and the debilitating diarrhea Ebola brings had slowed. 
 
 A little more than a week after testing positive for the virus, the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, remained in critical condition on Tuesday, while getting an experimental antiviral drug that doctors hope will help him recover. 
 
 But his family, who gathered here today and held a vigil with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said they had some reasons to be optimistic. 
 
 “We are happy Eric is doing better. If all goes well we will be able to see him,” his nephew, Josephus Weeks, said. 
 
 Photo 
 
 It is a critical week not just for Mr. Duncan but for the 48 people who had some contact with him after he showed signs of the disease. In this city, on edge over fears that Ebola could spread, officials have urged calm, saying those potentially exposed to the virus are being tracked and none have showed symptoms. 
 
 Dr. David Lakey, the Texas health commissioner, said Tuesday that the next few days could be decisive in determining whether any of the 48 people who came in contact with Mr. Duncan develop the virus. 
 
 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the maximum incubation period for the virus is 21 days, but symptoms typically appear in eight to 10. Mr. Duncan, who apparently contracted the virus before flying to the United States, began complaining of symptoms on Sept. 24 and was hospitalized in isolation on Sept. 28. The 10-day threshold will pass by the middle of this week. 
 
 Of the 48 people under observation, 10 are deemed to be at high risk, officials said. Three of those people shared an apartment with Mr. Duncan and seven are health care workers. The other 38 people are considered to be at lower risk. 
 
 “None of them are sick, none of them have a fever,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C., said Tuesday. 
 
 Dr. Frieden said Mr. Duncan’s condition and the lack of new cases were positive signs with implications for what he said will be a long fight against the disease. 
 
 “Globally, this is going to be a long hard fight,” he said. “We can never forget that the enemy here is a virus, the enemy is Ebola, not people, not countries, not communities, a virus. And it’s a virus that doesn’t spread through the air, that we do know how to control. We do know how to stop it by isolating patients, doing contact tracing and breaking the chains of transmission. I can say one week in that there are real signs of progress not only in Dallas but also around the world.” 
 
 Since Saturday, Mr. Duncan has been receiving brincidofovir — an experimental drug developed to fight smallpox and other highly infectious viruses. The C.D.C. said there are no more doses of ZMapp, another experimental drug used on two American aid workers who later recovered from Ebola. 
 
 Mr. Duncan’s nephew said that despite signs of improvement, the virus has given his uncle serious infections in his lungs and kidneys, and Mr. Duncan has not yet turned a corner toward recovery. 
 
 Mr. Duncan came to Dallas a few weeks ago from Liberia to reunite with Louise Troh, with whom he has a son. Now Ms. Troh, one of her other sons and two men who were staying with them are quarantined until late October. Local officials moved them a few days ago from a small apartment, which had towels and bedding contaminated with Ebola, to a modest four-bedroom ranch house that was donated by a church after officials were unable to find a house for the potentially infected family through traditional landlords. 
 
 More Ebola Coverage 
 
 “They are doing very well,” said the Rev. George Mason of Wilshire Baptist Church, which Ms. Troh attends. “They are counting the days until they can come out.” 
 
 At the church on Tuesday night, Karsiah Duncan, Mr. Duncan’s 19-year-old son with Ms. Troh, spoke publicly about his father for the first time. The younger Mr. Duncan had not seen his father since he was 3, when his parents separated in an Ivory Coast refugee camp and Ms. Troh left for the United States. He is a freshman at Angelo State University, west of Dallas, where he plays on the football team. 
 
 A reunion was to be one of the highlights of Mr. Duncan’s visit. Instead, Karsiah visited his father at the hospital on Tuesday evening. 
 
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 “I just came down here because I thought God was calling me to see my dad,” he said. He thanked the doctors caring for his father, and paid tribute to the strength of his mother, who has been quarantined since Mr. Duncan was hospitalized on Sept. 28. “Keep praying and let God do what he got to do.” 
 
 Mr. Mason, the pastor, said he had visited the family to bring a Bible and letters from his congregation. Liberians in the area have come to bring traditional foods such as potato greens, cassava leaves and pepper sauce, not supplied by aid agencies. A number of local officials coordinating the response, including Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas and Judge Clay Jenkins of Dallas County, have also stopped by. 
 
 While they are careful to avoid contact, Mr. Mason said, they wear no protective clothing. 
 
 “The science is clear,” he said. “If they don’t have symptoms, they are not contagious. We had a choice to act out of fear or out of love. We chose to act out of love.” ||||| Story highlights Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in critical condition 
 
 CDC chief says nine who had definite contact with Duncan showing no symptoms 
 
 Health officials say the other 40 are considered "low risk" 
 
 Monitoring includes a visit from a health official, and temperatures checks twice a day 
 
 Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, is now in critical condition, a Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital spokeswoman said Saturday. 
 
 The Liberian man had previously been listed as being in serious condition. Hospital spokeswoman Candace White offered no new details other than his condition. 
 
 Earlier, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Duncan was in intensive care. 
 
 About 10 people are at "higher risk" of catching Ebola after coming into contact with Duncan but have shown no symptoms, health officials said Saturday. 
 
 The group is among 50 people being monitored daily, but the other 40 are considered "low risk," said Dr. David Lakey, the commissioner of Texas department of state health services. 
 
 The nine people who had definite contact with the Ebola patient -- including family members and health care professionals -- have been monitored and show no symptoms or fevers, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Saturday. 
 
 "We have already gotten well over 100 inquiries of possible patients," Frieden told reporters. "We've assessed every one of those ... and just this one patient has tested positive ... We expect that we will see more rumors or concerns or possibilities of cases, until there is a positive laboratory test, that is what they are." 
 
 Health officials did not provide details on the location of those being monitored or where they interacted with Duncan. 
 
 Monitoring includes a visit from a public health expert and temperature checks twice a day. None of them has had symptoms of Ebola so far, according to Lakey. 
 
 The latest figure is a drastic reduction of a number that started at 100 after initial talks with Duncan and hospital officials. 
 
 Duncan landed in Dallas on September 20, and started feeling sick days later. He made his initial visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on September 25. 
 
 He was released with antibiotics but went back three days later and was quickly isolated. A blood test Tuesday confirmed he had Ebola, the first case of the deadly virus diagnosed on American soil. 
 
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 Relocated to undisclosed location 
 
 "We've been very busy the last 24 hours trying to make sure that everyone who has had potential exposure is identified and they have been evaluated," Lakey said. 
 
 The high-risk list likely includes Duncan's partner, Louise, her 13-year-old son and her two 20-something nephews. The four had been holed up in the apartment Duncan lived in before he was hospitalized. 
 
 They were relocated to an undisclosed place Friday, and will be required to stay there until October 19. The incubation period -- time between Ebola infection and the onset of symptoms -- ranges between two to 21 days. 
 
 The Dallas hospital where Duncan is being treated has come under fire for its handling of his first visit there eight days ago. 
 
 Louise, who does not want her last name used, said Duncan told hospital staff he had a fever and abdominal pain, and had recently arrived from Liberia -- key information that could have been a tipoff for Ebola. 
 
 Health care workers around the nation "have to learn from the experience," Lakey said Saturday. 
 
 "The travel history is very important to take and it has to be communicated," he said. 
 
 The hospital defended its handling of the case. 
 
 "As a standard part of the nursing process, the patient's travel history was documented and available to the full care team in the electronic health record, including within the physician's workflow," it said in a statement. 
 
 Plans to get married 
 
 The church Louise attends said Duncan came to the United States so the two could get married. 
 
 Louise told the church's senior pastor, George Mason, about their marriage plan, according to Mark Wingfield, a spokesman at the Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. 
 
 Other Ebola scares 
 
 As nervous Dallas residents watch Duncan's case unfold, more Ebola scares popped up in other parts of the nation. 
 
 Howard University Hospital in Washington said Friday it had admitted a low-risk patient with symptoms that could be associated with Ebola, but health officials on Saturday said Ebola had been ruled out in that case. The unnamed patient had recently traveled to Nigeria. 
 
 In Liberia, NBC News freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo was diagnosed with Ebola on Thursday, and is expected to leave Monrovia for the United States on Sunday aboard a private charter plane. 
 
 In addition to Guinea and Sierra Leone, Liberia is one of three nations battling the deadly virus that has killed more than 3,000 people in West Africa.
– Ebola doesn't just cause a horrific death: It'll leave you with a massive hospital bill if you survive, reports Bloomberg. Care for Liberian national Thomas Duncan, who is in critical condition at a Dallas hospital, is costing up to $1,000 an hour, and analysts believe the bill could total more than $500,000, including costs like security and decontamination. Duncan—who will also face criminal charges if he pulls through—has no health insurance, and it's not clear if the bill will ever be paid. "It's too early to make a decision about payment of bills; he is in critical condition," a Liberian Embassy spokesman says. "The focus is on his health." More: Duncan, 42, is receiving an experimental drug, and health officials say there have been a few positive signs: He's still on dialysis, but his blood pressure and temperature are now normal, reports the New York Times. None of the 48 people under observation who came into contact with him are showing Ebola symptoms. But with the incubation deadline days away, Dallas is on edge, reports the AP. "This is a very critical week," says Texas Health Commissioner David Lakey. "We're at a very sensitive period when a contact could develop symptoms. We're monitoring with extreme vigilance." Before he became unresponsive, Duncan apologized to his fiancee and told her he would have "preferred to stay in Liberia and died than bring this to you," a family friend tells the Washington Post. The friend says he told her, "I'm so sorry all of this is happening ... I would not put the love of my life in danger." Duncan's relatives have been able to view him via a video system, but they decided not to during a hospital visit yesterday because earlier images had been too disturbing. "What we saw was very painful. It didn't look good," a nephew tells the AP. A fascinating read: How Firestone shut down Ebola.