From Guinea to Dallas: Tracing the Ebola Threat

At the Los Angeles Times:

If relatives of Marthalene Williams hadn't insisted that she had malaria, their Paynesville neighbor, Thomas Eric Duncan, might not have helped carry her to a taxi or accompanied them as they searched the capital for a hospital or clinic that would take her.

Four days later, on the afternoon of Sept. 19, Duncan arrived at Monrovia's airport to catch a flight to the United States, beginning with a connecting flight to Brussels. Like all travelers exiting the Ebola zone, Duncan's temperature was checked by a Liberian official who had been trained by CDC experts. Duncan's temperature was an unremarkable 97.3. He filled out a form crafted by the CDC and Liberian authorities to alert them to potential Ebola cases. It asks travelers whether they have had contact with people who might have Ebola.

It's not known whether Duncan suspected that Williams had Ebola, but health officials in Liberia say he did not disclose his encounter with her. He was waved onto the jet, and then spent several hours on a layover at the Brussels airport, a busy hub that last year handled more than 19 million passengers.

Duncan then flew out on United Flight 951 to Washington Dulles International Airport. He arrived about 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 20, then boarded United Flight 822, which landed in Dallas about 5:30 p.m.

From there, he got a ride in a private car to the northeast Dallas home of his girlfriend, a Liberian nursing-home worker named Louise Troh, the woman's daughter said.

RTWT.