Homeless man linked to U.S ebola patient

U.S. authorities say they've located a homeless man in Texas who needs to be monitored because he may have had contact with the lone Ebola patient in the United States.

Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed said the man was located Sunday, a few hours after officials first said he was missing.

The person is not considered to be one of the 10 people who definitely had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, who is in critical condition at a Dallas hospital.

Authorities said Sunday that the man is part of a larger group of 38 people who may have been around Duncan when he was showing symptoms of the disease.


Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins previously called the man a "low-risk individual."We have a great place for him to stay and we can attend to his every need. We just need him to be a hero to his community and to come forward," Jenkins said at an earlier news conference Sunday.

Duncan is now "fighting for his life" after his condition worsened from serious to critical on Saturday.

he homeless man was brought into a facility on Saturday and had his vitals and temperature checked. They asked him to stay but he left the premises.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, said he was confident that the virus would not spread widely in the United States.

"The man in Dallas, who is fighting for his life, is the only patient to develop Ebola in the United States," said Frieden.

"The spread of Ebola is nowhere near as infectious as say, the flu."

Frieden said in the affected parts of West Africa, where Ebola has killed more than 3,400 people, the disease is spreading so rapidly it is difficult for health officials to keep up.

cbcnews