A SHERIFF�S deputy in Dallas has been hospitalised after showing symptoms of Ebola, as the first person diagnosed with the virus outside of West Africa died in a Texas hospital.
Dallas officials said the deputy had gone into the apartment where Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan had stayed before being hospitalised. Mr Duncan died today, 10 days after he was admitted and despite receiving an experimental drug to fight off the illness which causes vomiting, diarrhoea and often fatal bleeding.
�Mr Duncan succumbed to an insidious disease, Ebola. He fought courageously in this battle,� said a statement from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland said the deputy was being treated �out of an abundance of caution.�
The deputy was taken to hospital after an emergency care facility reported a patient �exhibiting signs and symptoms� of Ebola claimed to have had contact with Mr Duncan.
Mr Piland said the deputy entered the apartment where Mr Duncan had been saying and had contact with some members of the family Duncan has stayed with.
Mr Duncan, a Liberian, is believed to have been infected with Ebola before he left Liberia and boarded a plane to visit family in Texas.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said there was �zero risk� that he had infected any fellow travellers because he was not symptomatic until days after the flight.
Mr Duncan�s death came as the first American flown back to the US for treatment of Ebola donated blood to a freelance video journalist who recently returned from West Africa with the disease.
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