Mike Stone/Reuters
Four members of a family with whom the first U.S. Ebola patient was staying were confined to their Dallas home under armed guard Thursday as the circle of people possibly exposed to the virus widened. The unusual confinement was imposed after the family failed to comply with a request not to leave their apartment, according to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. Thomas Eric Duncan, 40, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, had been staying with the four, whose names have not been released. Texas Health Commissioner David Lakey said the three-week confinement order would help ensure the family can be closely monitored, including checking them for fevers over the next three weeks. The family will not be allowed to receive visitors, officials said.
A woman who lives in the apartment , Louise Troh, said she has been quarantined with her 13-year-old son and two nephews. "Who wants to be locked up?" she said in an interview with The Associated Press. She said she never imagined this could happen to her so far from disease-ravaged West Africa. She added that she wants federal health authorities to decontaminate her home. Liberia has said it will prosecute Duncan, who is from that country, for lying on a health questionnaire.