THE RACE TO TRACE : Texas Ebola Patient Was In Contact With Children... At Least 12 To 18 People... Identified As Liberian Native... Vomited On Way To Hospital... REPORT: Hospital Made Huge Error In Diagnosis...

DALLAS , Texas (AP) — 

The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States told health care workers on his initial hospital visit that he had recently been in an area affected by the deadly disease, but that information was not widely shared, a hospital official said Wednesday.

Thomas Eric Duncan went to a Dallas emergency room Friday and explained that he was visiting the U.S. from Liberia. He was sent home with antibiotics, according to his sister, Mai Wureh.

A man walks up the stairway leading to the Texas Health
 Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014.
 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

He returned two days later, after his condition worsened, and was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Mark Lester, who works for the hospital's parent company, said a nurse had asked Duncan whether he had been in any part of West Africa, where Ebola has killed thousands. But that "information was not fully communicated throughout the whole team."

A day after the man's diagnosis was confirmed, a nine-member team of federal health officials was tracking anyone who had close contact with him.

The team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was in Dallas to work with local and state health agencies to ensure that those people are watched every day for 21 days.

"If anyone develops fever, we'll immediately isolate them to stop the chain of transmission," Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC director, said in an interview.

Duncan has been kept in isolation at the hospital since Sunday. He was listed in serious but stable condition.

Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 6,500 people in West Africa, and more than 3,000 deaths have been linked to the disease, according to the World Health Organization.

Officials are monitoring 12 to 18 people who may have been exposed to the man, including three members of the ambulance crew that transported him to the hospital and five schoolchildren.

Some of the people are members of his family, but not all, Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed said. more