Officials have revealed that Thomas Duncan, the first U.S. Ebola patient, lied to airport authorities that he had not been in contact with anyone infected with the virus.
Reports indicate that Duncan answered several Ebola questionnaires during three stages of screening before his flight from Liberia to the U.S via Brussels.
Although he had helped a sick woman who later died of the virus, Duncan is believed to have answered "No" when asked whether he has had close contact with Ebola victims.
"The first screening was at the gate, before you get to the parking lot. The second time is before you enter the terminal building and third is before you board the flight. At every point your temperature is scanned," says Binyah Kesselly, board chairman of the Liberian Airport Authority.
Liberian Airport officials have announced plans to prosecute Duncan if he survives the deadly virus following his isolation and treatment at the Dallas Presbyterian Hospital.
Duncan's case has generated widespread concerns about safety measures to curb the spread of the virus. Many questions have been raised about the efficiency of airport screening measures in countries worst hit by the outbreak in West Africa.
Liberia along with Guinea and Sierra Leone account for the most cases of the deadly virus which has since claimed the lives of over 3,000 people.
Reports indicate that Duncan, a Liberian national visiting his son and the child's mother in the U.S., showed no symptoms of the virus during his flight and days after arriving in Texas.
Dallas health officials have announced that about 100 people, suspected of having had close or secondary contact with Duncan, are being monitored for signs of the Ebola virus.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we're starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient's home," says Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
So far no one has been reported sick or displaying the symptoms of the virus, which includes fever, abdominal pains, and vomiting.
Duncan is the second Liberian national, whose disobedience of the international Ebola health precautions has led to the spread of the disease to other countries, putting thousands at risk. Early this year another Liberian man - Patrick Sawyer - traveled to Nigeria while sick with the virus despite warnings from health officials. Sawyer later died in Lagos along with a nurse who treated him. Officials say his actions put thousands of people at risk of infection.
The Liberian government has apologized for Duncan's irresponsibility. Reports indicate that the state is also considering taking legal actions against him upon his recovery and return to Liberia.
"The fact that he knew [he had been exposed to the virus] and he left the country is unpardonable, quite frankly," says Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson to CBC.
She went on to say that she hopes "nobody else gets infected," especially "with the U.S doing so much to help us fight Ebola, and again one of our compatriots didn't take due care, and so he's gone there and...put some Americans in a state of fear, and put them at some risk, and so I feel very saddened by that and very angry with him, to tell you the truth," she said.
