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Chief: Deputy was in Ebola victim's home
02:11 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

Health official: With no fever and no contact, there is no risk

Son on hospitalized deputy: We don't think he has Ebola

Fire chief: Health officials are treating it "as a low-risk event"

The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States dies

CNN  — 

The family of NBC cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, is cautiously optimistic after doctors said that his condition at a Nebraska hospital has improved slightly.

The deputy, named by local media as Sgt. Michael Monnig, didn’t have any direct contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the man who died of Ebola in Dallas on Wednesday.

“We know he didn’t have direct contact with the patient (Duncan) and he doesn’t have a fever, and in a situation like that there is no risk of Ebola,” said Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The patient – who was transported from Frisco, Texas – had reported being in the Dallas apartment where Duncan had been staying and having “some contact” with Duncan’s family members, Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland told reporters.

Monnig was a first responder and had spent about 30 minutes in the apartment, his son told CNN affiliate KTVT. He woke up Wednesday, feeling sore and fatigued and with a stomachache.

“With the situation, what’s happened, he just decided it would be better to be safe than sorry,” Logan Monnig told KTVT.

The family does not expect that Monnig has Ebola, but still, his son said, “We’re kind of scared and just want to make sure he’s OK.”

The patient was admitted to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas “after reporting possible exposure to the Ebola virus,” the hospital said.

“Right now, there are more questions than answers about this case,” the hospital said. “Our professional staff of nurses and doctors is prepared to examine the patient, discuss any findings with appropriate agencies and officials.”

Asked about the case by reporters, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden said the patient “does not have either definite contact with Ebola or definite symptoms of Ebola.”

A spokeswoman for CareNow, which made the call to emergency dispatchers, said the medical center “was being very cautious” after the patient checked yes in response to a screening question.

In addition to Monnig, two other deputies from the department are feeling sick, Scott Guiselman, president of the Dallas Sheriff Fraternal Order of Police, told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

But state and local officials said they weren’t aware of any other cases of Ebola-like symptoms.

The new patient’s case was the latest development as fears and concerns over Ebola spread worldwide. With multiple developments on numerous fronts, here’s what you need to know to quickly get caught up on the latest:

WEST AFRICA

No relief in sight:

The number of deaths attributed to the current Ebola outbreak has climbed to 4,033, the World Health Organization reported Friday. The tally brings the total number of confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola to 8,399. The numbers were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain and the United States.

The United Nations said that one of its medical officials in Liberia had contracted Ebola and was being treated there. The international worker, who’s not been named, is the second member of the U.N. mission in Liberia to be infected with the virus. The first died on September 25.

U.S. CASES

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died Wednesday, 10 days after he was admitted to Dallas’ Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. His family wonders whether the outcome would have been different if doctors had admitted Duncan to a hospital on September 25, the first time he showed up with a fever and stomach pain.

Duncan had been on a ventilator and on dialysis for failing kidneys, health officials said.

Duncan received an experimental medicine nearly a week after being admitted into a hospital – a far longer wait than experienced by four other Ebola patients treated in the United States. The others are Americans; Duncan is Liberian.

NBC cameraman recovering:

NBC cameraman Ashoka Mukpo is “reasonably stable,” but a doctor cautioned it’s too early to say he’s out of the woods. The American citizen got infected in Liberia, and he was airlifted to Omaha, Nebraska, for treatment Sunday. He’s receiving an experimental drug called brincidofovir, or CMX001.

Dr. Kent Brantly, an Ebola survivor, has donated his blood to Mukpo, which may contain life-saving antibodies, according to the Samaritan’s Purse aid group. Brantly previously did the same for another Ebola patient, Dr. Rick Sacra, who was treated at the same Omaha center as Mukpo and survived.

New travel screening:

Five of America’s biggest, busiest airports are beefing up measures. Now, people arriving from the three nations hardest hit by Ebola will get special screening, including having their temperature taken. The airports are: New York’s JFK, Washington Dulles, Newark, Chicago O’Hare and Atlanta international airports.

About 150 people a day arriving in the United States after having recently traveled from Ebola-ravaged West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will get special treatment, including having their temperature taken and answering questions about whether they’ve been exposed to anyone with Ebola, Frieden said.

IN OTHER COUNTRIES

Spain ramps up response:

After a nurse’s assistant in Spain became the first person to contract Ebola outside Africa, five people related to the case were being monitored in a Madrid hospital, including her husband, an emergency room doctor and the neighborhood doctor who saw her before the case was confirmed.

The nurse’s assistant is the only one confirmed to have Ebola. Besides the three new cases, the others include the woman’s husband, judged to be at high risk of infection, and a nurse from the same hospital. Two others were released from Carlos III hospital earlier Wednesday – a Spanish man who’d recently come from Nigeria and a female nurse.

Sporadic infections unavoidable, the WHO says:

An unnamed Norwegian national, a staffer with Doctors Without Borders, has contracted the virus while working in Sierra Leone. The staffer was put in isolation Sunday and will be moved to Europe for treatment.

Sporadic Ebola infections will be unavoidable in some European countries because of direct travel from their hubs to hotspot areas in West Africa, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. But the risk of spread, it said, is avoidable and extremely low.

RESPONSE

Closed wallets:

The Ebola outbreak may dominate the headlines, but few Americans are opening up their wallets. Four major U.S. aid organizations surveyed by CNNMoney have received a combined total of $19.5 million so far. Much of that came from nonprofit foundations, not individual donors. Last month, the United Nations said it would need nearly $1 billion to fight the virus.

France giving $88 million:

France is contributing about $88 million to fight the Ebola outbreak, the French Foreign Ministry said.

Outbreak’s possible cost? $32 billion:

The outbreak of Ebola in western Africa could cost the continent’s economies $32 billion over the next two years if it spreads to its larger neighbors, the World Bank estimated in a report Wednesday.

Complete coverage on Ebola

CNN’s Faith Karimi, Matthew Stucker, Mayra Cuevas, John Bonifield, Dave Alsup and Chandler Friedman contributed to this report.