Officials: Dallas sheriff's deputy unlikely to have Ebola

DALLAS, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- A Dallas sheriff's deputy who visited the apartment occupied by Ebola patient Thomas Duncan is unlikely to have been infected with the deadly disease, officials said.

Michael Monnig's son said Wednesday his father decided to visit a clinic because he had stomach pains and felt tired. Monnig had been monitoring his temperature since a visit to Duncan's apartment last week, but Logan Monnig said his father spent very little time there and did not come into direct contact with Duncan.

Duncan, a native of Liberia who was infected there, died Wednesday morning at a Dallas hospital. He was the first person to be diagnosed with the disease in the United States.

"We don't want to cause a panic," Logan Monnig told the Dallas Morning News. "There is almost no chance my dad would have Ebola."

Mark Piland, the fire chief in Frisco, where Monnig lives, concurred. He described Monnig's illness as a "low-risk event."

Piland said Monnig had enough symptoms to trigger hospitalization but was "minus" many of the signs of Ebola. The chief said authorities are reacting cautiously, decontaminating the ambulance that transported Monnig from a Frisco clinic to a Dallas hospital and keeping him in isolation.

The Ebola virus is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. The disease has an extremely high mortality rate but past outbreaks were quickly contained with health care workers the most at risk of contracting the disease.