text: Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan told his fiancee the day he was diagnosed last week that he regrets exposing her to the deadly virus and had he known he was carrying Ebola, he would have “preferred to stay in Liberia and died than bring this to you,” a family friend said. 
   
   “He apologized to Louise the day they told him what he had,” said Saymendy Lloyd, a close friend of Louise Troh, the fiancee of Duncan, who is in critical condition and no longer responsive. “He told her, ‘I’m so sorry all of this is happening. . . . I would not put the love of my life in danger.’ ” 
   
   Family members gathered in Dallas and were able to see Duncan on Monday at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital via a laptop camera in his hospital room. “He is not responsive at all. They said he was drugged and they put him in deep sleep,” said Lloyd, who was with the family. 
   
   She said the family members were saddened by the sight of Duncan. 
   
   Lloyd said this was the first time Duncan’s mother, who lives in North Carolina, saw her son since he came to the United States. 
   
   1 of 46 Full Screen Autoplay Close Oct. 7, 2014 Oct. 6, 2014 Oct. 5, 2014 Oct. 4, 2014 Oct. 3, 2014 Oct. 2, 2014 Oct. 1, 2014 Skip Ad × Family of Ebola patient in Texas mourns View Photos The family of Thomas Eric Duncan was devastated by the news of his death. Caption The family of Thomas Eric Duncan was devastated by the news of his death. Oct. 8, 2014 Eric Williams, a Texas congressional candidate, speaks to reporters outside Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas about the death of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan at the hospital. Williams is calling on Gov. Rick Perry (R) to begin an investigation into the treatment of Duncan and the care he received at the hospital. LM Otero/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
   
   “She has not seen him for 12 years, and the first time she saw him was through a monitor,” said Lloyd. “She was very, very emotional. She told him to be strong, that she is praying for him, that she loves him and God is able to do all things.” 
   
   Troh, who is in mandated isolation in Dallas with her 13-year-old son and two other people, spoke by phone to Lloyd. 
   
   Duncan and Troh’s 19-year-old son, Eric Karsiah Duncan, tried to visit his father at the hospital Tuesday evening. 
   
   Speaking later at a news conference at Wilshire Baptist Church, the Angelo State University student thanked his mother’s church members. 
   
   “I’m praying for my family to be okay and my dad makes it out safely,” said Eric Duncan, who had not seen his father since he was 3 in Liberia. “I hope they find a cure for it.” 
   
   As Thomas Duncan fights for his life, Texas health officials are bracing for a critical week in Dallas, where they are watching for any signs that as many as 48 people who had contact with Duncan may develop symptoms of Ebola. Health officials say the incubation period for the disease is 21 days, but it could appear eight to 10 days after exposure. 
   
   Duncan began showing symptoms Sept. 24, when he first sought medical treatment at Texas Presbyterian, three blocks from the home of Troh. Duncan was sent home but was taken back to the hospital by ambulance Sept. 28. Two days later, last Tuesday, a blood test confirmed that he had Ebola. Health officials say the “10-day threshold” for the disease will fall within the next few days. 
   
   View Graphic More than a dozen drugs are being studied for treating Ebola and other filoviruses. 
   
   “This is a critical week. We need to be prepared in Dallas for what could happen if family members become ill,” said David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of Health Services. “We are doing contingency planning and praying for what if. I have been concentrating on what we need to do now to protect Dallas.” 
   
   None of the 10 “high risk” people — including four people who lived in the apartment where Duncan stayed and six health-care workers — have developed symptoms, health officials said. Troh, who was moved to an undisclosed location with the three people who were in the apartment with Duncan, is still well, family members say. On Sunday, members of the Liberian community association were able to take her traditional Liberian food, including jollof rice, foo foo, cassava leaves and plantains. “She called me, ‘I’m eating some traditional Liberian food,’ ” Lloyd said. “She was very happy about that.” 
   
   Health officials say they are continuing to watch 38 other people who had “possible contact” with Duncan and were considered to be at lower risk. Twice a day, health officials are checking the temperature of the 48 people — of whom six are in mandated isolation. 
   
   “They receive one call a day [to ask for a temperature reading] and one visit per day,” said Sana Sayed, a spokeswoman for the city of Dallas. “A health worker makes a physical contact with the 48 people being monitored every single day, seeing them and checking their temperature.” 
   
   Lakey would not discuss why hospital protocols failed to detect Duncan the first time he visited Texas Health Presbyterian with a 101.1 fever, complaining of abdominal pains. The hospital’s decision to send him home put other people at risk. 
   
   “A lot of evaluations will take place to find out what happened on the first presentation to find out why wasn’t a diagnosis made,” Lakey said. 
   
   Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price criticized the hospital for failing to heed warnings sent in July about what protocols hospitals should follow to treat infectious diseases. 
   
   “I said at the outset, Presbyterian is a boutique hospital next to a little Ellis Island,” Price said, referring to the neighborhood where many residents are immigrants. “If you don’t have insurance, you’re not going to get treated. That’s the elephant in the room.” 
   
   Texas Health Resources, the hospital network that includes Texas Health Presbyterian, responded to criticism Tuesday by saying, “He was treated the way any other patient would have been treated, regardless of nationality or ability to pay for care. We have a long history of treating a multicultural community in this area.” 
   
   Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the agency was exploring ways to increase the screening of passengers on both sides of the Atlantic. 
   
   “We’re working very intensively on the screening process,” Frieden said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “We’re looking at that entire process to see what more can be done.” 
   
   While he promised that “additional steps” were coming, Frieden did not elaborate on what that would include. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview Tuesday that Frieden told him that the plan is to have “tougher types of screening on U.S. soil.” 
   
   Still, Frieden said the CDC has had teams on the ground working to strengthen the screening of passengers leaving West Africa. The screening has included taking temperatures, keeping an eye out for other symptoms and having travelers fill out questionnaires. 
   
   He said the CDC methods have been used to screen more than 36,000 people over two months. And of those travelers, a small portion of whom were coming to the United States, only 77 people had a fever or other symptoms that caused them to be taken out of line, he said. “As far as we know, none of those 77 people had Ebola,” Frieden noted. 
   
   Of course, these methods are not perfect, as was made clear when Duncan filled out a questionnaire, had his temperature taken by a person trained by the CDC and boarded multiple flights on his way to Dallas. 
   
   President Obama’s promise of stepped-up screening for Ebola at U.S. airports that handle international flights will fall on the shoulders of the Customs and Border Protection officers who greet passengers arriving from abroad. 
   
   Though they often seem preoccupied with scrutinizing passports and luggage, customs officers are trained to detect signs of illness, and they routinely do just that, officials said. 
   
   “CBP personnel review all travelers entering the United States for general overt signs of illnesses,” the agency said in a statement. 
   
   In addition to visual observations, CBP officers question passengers about their health and are instructed to alert the CDC if a passenger appears to be seriously ill. If a person is believed to have “a possible communicable disease,” they are isolated while the CDC and local authorities conduct the evaluation. 
   
   Federal law requires pilots to radio ahead if a passenger dies or falls ill with certain symptoms. 
   
   “If somebody comes in on a flight that has a fever or any one of those triggers, CDC can insert themselves at any point in the process,” said Rob Yingling, spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which runs Dulles International and Reagan National airports. “They can say [to the pilot], ‘Tell us more about this case,’ or they can actually physically go to the plane.” 
   
   The CDC maintains an office at Dulles and other major airports that handle international flights. 
   
   Meanwhile, up to 4,000 service members are expected to head to West African countries ravaged by the Ebola epidemic. They will be monitored several times a day and, if any of them contract Ebola, they will be flown back to the United States aboard a specially designed plane for treatment. 
   
   Among the tasks laid out for the military is the construction of 17 treatment centers for people with the disease. This will take until the middle of next month, according to Gen. David Rodriguez, chief of U.S. Africa Command. 
   
   Mark Berman, Ashley Halsey III, Dan Lamonthe and Amy Ellis Nutt contributed to this report from Washington. ||||| DALLAS (AP) — The family of a man diagnosed with the first U.S. case of Ebola again visited him at the hospital Tuesday but declined to view him via video the last time had been too upsetting. 
   
   Nowai Korkoya, mother of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, center, walks with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, and Josephus Weeks, Duncan's nephew after they spoke to reporters Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in... (Associated Press) 
   
   Nowai Korkoya, center, mother of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, is wheeled by the Rev. Jesse Jackson after her family visited her son at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in... (Associated Press) 
   
   FILE - This 2011 photo provided by Wilmot Chayee shows Thomas Eric Duncan at a wedding in Ghana. In September 2014, Duncan became the first patient in the U.S. diagnosed with Ebola. (AP Photo/Wilmot Chayee) (Associated Press) 
   
   Nowai Korkoya, mother of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, walks with the Rev. Jesse Jackson after they spoke to reporters, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in Dallas. Duncan's family has gathered in Dallas to... (Associated Press) 
   
   Josephus Weeks, left, nephew of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, stands next to the Rev. Jesse Jackson as he finishes up speaking to reporters Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in Dallas. Duncan's family has gathered... (Associated Press) 
   
   Josephus Weeks, left, and his son Josephus Weeks, Jr., nephews of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, visit with a reporter after seeing their uncle at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Tuesday, Oct. 7,... (Associated Press) 
   
   Relatives of Thomas Eric Duncan glimpsed him using a video system at Dallas' Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Monday. But when they returned anew, this time with Rev. Jesse Jackson, they decided such images were too much. 
   
   "What we saw was very painful. It didn't look good," said Duncan's nephew, Josephus Weeks. 
   
   Weeks said he and Duncan's mother were unable to sleep after seeing Duncan's face. 
   
   The hospital says Duncan is in critical condition and is sedated but stable. He is on a breathing machine and kidney dialysis. Duncan's liver function, which declined over the weekend, has improved, though doctors say it may it may not stay that way. 
   
   David Lakey, commissioner of Texas' Department of State Health Services, walked the hospital ward housing Duncan, which is otherwise vacant. He said security and medical officials wear gowns, double gloves and masks, and are following protocols on removing them and showering when they leave the ward. 
   
   "They are doing their work very safely," Lakey said. 
   
   ___ 
   
   Eds: Associated Press Writer Will Weissert contributed to this report from Austin. ||||| Photo 
   
   DALLAS — The Liberian man battling the Ebola virus is on a ventilator and receiving kidney dialysis, health officials said Tuesday, but for the first time doctors had some positive news to report about his condition. Family members who were briefed by doctors said they were told Mr. Duncan’s temperature and blood pressure are back to normal and the debilitating diarrhea Ebola brings had slowed. 
   
   A little more than a week after testing positive for the virus, the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, remained in critical condition on Tuesday, while getting an experimental antiviral drug that doctors hope will help him recover. 
   
   But his family, who gathered here today and held a vigil with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said they had some reasons to be optimistic. 
   
   “We are happy Eric is doing better. If all goes well we will be able to see him,” his nephew, Josephus Weeks, said. 
   
   Photo 
   
   It is a critical week not just for Mr. Duncan but for the 48 people who had some contact with him after he showed signs of the disease. In this city, on edge over fears that Ebola could spread, officials have urged calm, saying those potentially exposed to the virus are being tracked and none have showed symptoms. 
   
   Dr. David Lakey, the Texas health commissioner, said Tuesday that the next few days could be decisive in determining whether any of the 48 people who came in contact with Mr. Duncan develop the virus. 
   
   According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the maximum incubation period for the virus is 21 days, but symptoms typically appear in eight to 10. Mr. Duncan, who apparently contracted the virus before flying to the United States, began complaining of symptoms on Sept. 24 and was hospitalized in isolation on Sept. 28. The 10-day threshold will pass by the middle of this week. 
   
   Of the 48 people under observation, 10 are deemed to be at high risk, officials said. Three of those people shared an apartment with Mr. Duncan and seven are health care workers. The other 38 people are considered to be at lower risk. 
   
   “None of them are sick, none of them have a fever,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C., said Tuesday. 
   
   Dr. Frieden said Mr. Duncan’s condition and the lack of new cases were positive signs with implications for what he said will be a long fight against the disease. 
   
   “Globally, this is going to be a long hard fight,” he said. “We can never forget that the enemy here is a virus, the enemy is Ebola, not people, not countries, not communities, a virus. And it’s a virus that doesn’t spread through the air, that we do know how to control. We do know how to stop it by isolating patients, doing contact tracing and breaking the chains of transmission. I can say one week in that there are real signs of progress not only in Dallas but also around the world.” 
   
   Since Saturday, Mr. Duncan has been receiving brincidofovir — an experimental drug developed to fight smallpox and other highly infectious viruses. The C.D.C. said there are no more doses of ZMapp, another experimental drug used on two American aid workers who later recovered from Ebola. 
   
   Mr. Duncan’s nephew said that despite signs of improvement, the virus has given his uncle serious infections in his lungs and kidneys, and Mr. Duncan has not yet turned a corner toward recovery. 
   
   Mr. Duncan came to Dallas a few weeks ago from Liberia to reunite with Louise Troh, with whom he has a son. Now Ms. Troh, one of her other sons and two men who were staying with them are quarantined until late October. Local officials moved them a few days ago from a small apartment, which had towels and bedding contaminated with Ebola, to a modest four-bedroom ranch house that was donated by a church after officials were unable to find a house for the potentially infected family through traditional landlords. 
   
   More Ebola Coverage 
   
   “They are doing very well,” said the Rev. George Mason of Wilshire Baptist Church, which Ms. Troh attends. “They are counting the days until they can come out.” 
   
   At the church on Tuesday night, Karsiah Duncan, Mr. Duncan’s 19-year-old son with Ms. Troh, spoke publicly about his father for the first time. The younger Mr. Duncan had not seen his father since he was 3, when his parents separated in an Ivory Coast refugee camp and Ms. Troh left for the United States. He is a freshman at Angelo State University, west of Dallas, where he plays on the football team. 
   
   A reunion was to be one of the highlights of Mr. Duncan’s visit. Instead, Karsiah visited his father at the hospital on Tuesday evening. 
   
   Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. 
   
   “I just came down here because I thought God was calling me to see my dad,” he said. He thanked the doctors caring for his father, and paid tribute to the strength of his mother, who has been quarantined since Mr. Duncan was hospitalized on Sept. 28. “Keep praying and let God do what he got to do.” 
   
   Mr. Mason, the pastor, said he had visited the family to bring a Bible and letters from his congregation. Liberians in the area have come to bring traditional foods such as potato greens, cassava leaves and pepper sauce, not supplied by aid agencies. A number of local officials coordinating the response, including Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas and Judge Clay Jenkins of Dallas County, have also stopped by. 
   
   While they are careful to avoid contact, Mr. Mason said, they wear no protective clothing. 
   
   “The science is clear,” he said. “If they don’t have symptoms, they are not contagious. We had a choice to act out of fear or out of love. We chose to act out of love.” ||||| A member of the Cleaning Guys Haz Mat clean up company removes items from the apartment where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was staying before being admitted to a hospital on October 6, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. 
   
   A member of the Cleaning Guys Haz Mat clean up company removes items from the apartment... Read More 
   
   A member of the Cleaning Guys Haz Mat clean up company removes items from the apartment where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was staying before being admitted to a hospital on October 6, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. Close 
   
   The care provided Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan may have cost as much as half a million dollars, a bill Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas is unlikely to ever collect. 
   
   Duncan died today at the hospital, where he had been isolated since Sept. 28. He had been on a ventilator, was given an experimental medicine and began receiving dialysis when his kidney’s failed Oct. 4, the hospital has said. His treatment included fluids replacement, blood transfusions and drugs to maintain blood pressure. There’s also the cost of security, disposing of Ebola-contaminated trash and equipment to protect caregivers. 
   
   “It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 a.m.,” Texas Health Presbyterian said today in a statement. 
   
   The Ebola Scourge 
   
   The bill for Duncan’s care may eventually total $500,000 including indirect costs such as the disruption to other areas of the hospital, said Dan Mendelson, chief executive officer of Avalere Health, a Washington consulting firm. Duncan’s care probably cost $18,000 to $24,000 a day, said Gerard Anderson, a health policy professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. 
   
   Photographer: Mike Stone/Getty Images Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on Sept. 30 in Dallas. Close Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on Sept. 30 in Dallas. Close Open Photographer: Mike Stone/Getty Images Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on Sept. 30 in Dallas. 
   
   Duncan had been in isolation in the hospital for nine days. “If they recognize that he has no money they will clearly just write it off as charity care,” Anderson said in a telephone interview yesterday before Duncan’s death was announced. 
   
   No Insurance 
   
   Duncan came to the U.S. from Liberia on Sept. 20 on a tourist visa. He had no health insurance to pay for his care, said the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights advocate, who traveled to Dallas at the request of Duncan’s mother. 
   
   Spokesmen for Texas Health Presbyterian and for the Liberian embassy in Washington declined to discuss who would pay for Duncan’s care. 
   
   Related: 
   
   Duncan is the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha have also treated Ebola patients, three of whom have been released after recovering. A fourth patient is under care in Omaha and a fifth in Atlanta. 
   
   Neither of the hospitals would comment on the cost of treating those patients. Kent Brantly, the first person to be transported from Liberia to the U.S. for care, was covered under health insurance provided by his charity, Samaritan’s Purse, said Todd Shearer, a spokesman for the group. 
   
   Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Civil rights advocate Reverend Jesse Jackson, right, walks with Nowai korkoyah, the mother of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, after speaking to the media at the South Dallas Cafe on October 7, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. Close Civil rights advocate Reverend Jesse Jackson, right, walks with Nowai korkoyah, the... Read More Close Open Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Civil rights advocate Reverend Jesse Jackson, right, walks with Nowai korkoyah, the mother of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, after speaking to the media at the South Dallas Cafe on October 7, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. 
   
   SIM’s Coverage 
   
   Two other aid workers, Nancy Writebol and Rick Sacra, went to Liberia with the Charlotte, North Carolina-based missionary group SIM. They are covered by the group’s health and workers’ compensation insurance plans, and SIM plans to pay their $25,000 deductibles, said George Salloum, the group’s vice president for finance and operations. Writebol’s evacuation from Liberia was covered in full by one of SIM’s insurance carriers, Aetna Inc. (AET), he said. He’s still waiting for bills from other carriers, whom he declined to name, and said he didn’t know what the hospital care cost. 
   
   “The hospitals have not disclosed that information to us,” Salloum said in a phone interview. “I’m very anxious to find out, personally, just wondering what they’re charging for that kind of care.” 
   
   Emory and Nebraska are known for their expertise in exotic diseases and careful isolation of infectious patients. Texas Health Presbyterian has no such pedigree. 
   
   Hospital Rank 
   
   It is ranked the fifth-best hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth region and 15th-best in Texas by U.S. News and World Report. Duncan arrived there in an ambulance on Sept. 28, after being initially sent home two days earlier from the emergency room with antibiotics. The hospital has blamed a communication failure in its electronic record system for Duncan’s initial release. 
   
   “They have an excellent reputation in the community” and “very good infectious disease physicians,” Stephen Love, president and CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, a trade group, said in a phone interview. 
   
   Anderson, who is a former federal health official, said that as a foreign citizen Duncan wouldn’t have been eligible for any U.S. health programs such as Medicaid, for low income people. Texas hospitals charge $8,176 per day on average for treatment of viral illnesses, including exotic diseases such as West Nile virus and Dengue fever, said Andrew Fitch, a health-care pricing expert at NerdWallet, a San Francisco-based company that provides consumer finance and health data. 
   
   That figure “is actually probably on the low end” for Ebola, Fitch said in a phone interview. “The isolation ward would bump up the charge a lot.” 
   
   Area Costs 
   
   Health care generally is more costly in Dallas than in the rest of the country, according to the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, a project of Dartmouth University that tracks regional variation in spending by Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. Medicare beneficiaries in Dallas cost about $11,484 on average in 2012, placing the area within the 90th percentile for the U.S. 
   
   Isolation procedures can include placing patients by themselves in rooms capable of negative air pressure, to prevent microorganisms from escaping, said Pritish Tosh, an infectious diseases physician and researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Physicians and nurses treating the patients must don gloves, gowns and masks with eye protection before entering the room and dispose of the gear afterward, he said. 
   
   Intensive Care 
   
   That can roughly double the cost of standard treatment in an intensive care unit, Anderson said. If a U.S. outbreak occurs, something federal health officials say is unlikely, the cost of care may fall as hospitals gain experience and streamline procedures, said Jeffrey Rice, CEO of Healthcare BlueBook Inc., a Brentwood, Tennessee, company that calculates health-care prices for consumers. 
   
   There is no approved cure for Ebola, though some patients have received experimental medications. Standard treatment includes supportive care to maintain body fluids, replace blood and fight off opportunistic infections. 
   
   The Ebola outbreak originated in West Africa, where it has infected 8,033 people, killing 3,879, primarily in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to a report today from the World Health Organization. 
   
   To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Wayne in Washington at awayne3@bloomberg.net 
   
   To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net Andrew Pollack ||||| DALLAS (AP) — The Fort Worth, Texas, company Cleaning Guys has dealt with hazardous spills. It has cleared bloody crime scenes, including some that involved HIV. 
   
   File - In the Oct. 3, 2014 file photo, hazardous material cleaners prepare to hang black plastic outside The Ivy Apartments in Dallas. A 15-member crew from the Cleaning Guys of Fort Worth labored for... (Associated Press) 
   
   File - In the Oct. 2, 2014, file photo, a hazardous materials cleaning company truck sits parked outside The Ivy Apartments in Dallas. A 15-member crew from the Cleaning Guys of Fort Worth labored for... (Associated Press) 
   
   In this photo made Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, Brad Smith, a hazardous material cleaner speaks to reporters staking out an apartment in Dallas. A 15-member crew that labored for four days at the apartment... (Associated Press) 
   
   In this photo made Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, a hazardous material cleaner removes an item from an apartment in Dallas. A 15-member crew that labored for four days at the apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan... (Associated Press) 
   
   FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2014, file photo, a hazardous material cleaner removes an item from an apartment in Dallas. A 15-member crew that labored for four days at the apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan... (Associated Press) 
   
   But Garrett Eison, the company's operations manager, said he was initially anxious when the company agreed to take on a job others were hesitant to do: cleaning up the Dallas apartment where an Ebola patient stayed. 
   
   "This is definitely something that would make you a little more nervous," Eison said, though he added that because he knew his company was prepared, "I don't feel worried about it." 
   
   Eison was part of a 15-member crew that spent four days at the apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan stayed when he began showing Ebola-related symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. They wore protective suits with gas masks as they filled about 140 barrels with items from the home for incineration, including mattresses, the patient's sheets and the entire apartment's carpet. 
   
   By the end, logos on the company's black and green trailers — televised nationwide by media camped outside the home — became a recognizable brand across Dallas, where Eison's colleagues have been approached in public and thanked. 
   
   The job wasn't easy to fill. At a briefing last week, Texas Health Commissioner David Lakey said that "there's been a little bit of hesitancy for entities to want to do that." A Dallas County spokeswoman said Tuesday that the county contacted seven vendors for the task and that "the only vendor that was responsive and met the guidelines" for that kind of waste disposal was the Cleaning Guys. 
   
   Duncan arrived in Dallas last month from Ebola-ravaged Liberia and stayed in the apartment with Louise Troh, her 13-year-old son and two nephews until he developed symptoms several days later and was eventually hospitalized. The family was moved to an undisclosed location on Friday, the day the cleanup started. They have not yet shown symptoms. 
   
   For the next several days, the crew cleared out the place, including a 26-hour final stretch lasting into Monday. The job required rotating two-person teams after they'd worked for 40 minutes to avoid exhaustion. They disposed of most of the family's belongings but were able to set aside items such as passports, a laptop, a family Bible, trophies, photographs and other keepsakes. 
   
   Company owner Erick McCallum said that for the job they set up a "little city" outside the apartment that included food, portable toilets and a place for workers to rest. They also made sure workers were properly hydrated and had their blood pressure under control. 
   
   McCallum said his crew didn't have any specific training for Ebola, which is spread by contact with bodily fluids and has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa. But he noted his company's previous work prepared them for what he calls his business' most high-profile job. 
   
   The workers consulted with Dallas County and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to ensure everyone was safe. 
   
   "It comes down to biohazard training," he said. "The steps and precautions taken are basically the same." 
   
   ___ 
   
   Associated Press writers Diana Heidgerd and Emily Schmall contributed to this report.
target: – Ebola doesn't just cause a horrific death: It'll leave you with a massive hospital bill if you survive, reports Bloomberg. Care for Liberian national Thomas Duncan, who is in critical condition at a Dallas hospital, is costing up to $1,000 an hour, and analysts believe the bill could total more than $500,000, including costs like security and decontamination. Duncan—who will also face criminal charges if he pulls through—has no health insurance, and it's not clear if the bill will ever be paid. "It's too early to make a decision about payment of bills; he is in critical condition," a Liberian Embassy spokesman says. "The focus is on his health." More: Duncan, 42, is receiving an experimental drug, and health officials say there have been a few positive signs: He's still on dialysis, but his blood pressure and temperature are now normal, reports the New York Times. None of the 48 people under observation who came into contact with him are showing Ebola symptoms. But with the incubation deadline days away, Dallas is on edge, reports the AP. "This is a very critical week," says Texas Health Commissioner David Lakey. "We're at a very sensitive period when a contact could develop symptoms. We're monitoring with extreme vigilance." Before he became unresponsive, Duncan apologized to his fiancee and told her he would have "preferred to stay in Liberia and died than bring this to you," a family friend tells the Washington Post. The friend says he told her, "I'm so sorry all of this is happening ... I would not put the love of my life in danger." Duncan's relatives have been able to view him via a video system, but they decided not to during a hospital visit yesterday because earlier images had been too disturbing. "What we saw was very painful. It didn't look good," a nephew tells the AP. A fascinating read: How Firestone shut down Ebola.