Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who is the first person to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the U.S., traveled to Dallas to marry his longtime girlfriend and the mother of his 19-year-old son, the pastor of the woman's church told NBC News on Saturday.
The Rev. George Mason, senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church, said the church has been "doing whatever is permitted" to help the woman — who is named Louise and whose last name NBC News is not reporting — and the three children with whom she is in isolation at an undisclosed location in Dallas. "Because of the quarantine, we're limited," Mason said, but he said he's been in regular contact with her by phone and reported: "She's doing better now that they have moved her. The place that they're living in now is much easier now. There's less scrutiny, and it's more private."
Mason said he hadn't had a chance to meet with Duncan and the woman before they were quarantined, but he said she had told him Duncan came to the U.S. to marry her and to see his son. "That's still a hope that they have," he said.
Mason confirmed that he sent an email message, obtained by NBC News, alerting his congregation that "sadly, there is a Wilshire connection to the Dallas Ebola case." In the message, he wrote that "we have no reason to believe there has been any exposure of the Ebola virus at Wilshire. None of the family and friends of Mr. Duncan have been present at Wilshire since his arrival in the United States Sept. 20. ... Please join me in praying for God's mercy and peace to fall upon each of them and for God's healing."
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