By: Kevin Sack
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/us/ebola-victim-went-from-liberian-war-to-a-fight-for-life.html?ref=world&_r=0
The murderous civil war which from 1989 until 2003 has terrorized Liberia, killed off about 5 percent of the population. In attempts to escape, it sent groups after groups of refugees to neighboring countries. Over 700,000 Liberians fled from their nation which had about two million residents when the war began. One of the Liberians who experienced this conflict was a man named Thomas Eric Duncan. Mr. Duncan is now known as the man who brought Ebola into the United States.
It started when Mr. Duncan came to visit the women, whom he had a child with during the times of war, that was living in Dallas, Texas with their now 13 year-old son. After she gave birth, they separated for personal reasons. Mr. Duncan has not seen his son since birth. After the women separated from her past husband, she got in touch with Mr. Duncan and started a long distance relationship, resulting of him returning back to her in Dallas, Texas. It is said that “they had had a falling out, and had patched things up and he had come with the intention to marry and start a new life together" which now is not going to work out very well. Once again, Mr. Duncan and the woman found themselves in this vortex of larger forces which they cannot control.
The arrival of Ebola with Mr. Duncan on Septermber 20, put the city of Dallas so on edge that parents are keeping their children home from school. This problem also commanded the attention of President Obama and his top health advisers. There was even a national debate over whether to restrict travelers from going to and coming from infected countries. All we can do is be careful, watch our hands, and see where the research can take us.
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