Ebola Victim Patrick Sawyerr Was On His Way Home To America To Celebrate Daughters Birthdays

The Ebola victim who sparked fears that a historic outbreak of the disease could spread globally was an American citizen, it was revealed last night.

Patrick Sawyer died after becoming noticeably ill on a flight from Liberia (in West Africa, where the worst ever outbreak of Ebola is gathering pace) to the city of Lagos in Nigeria.

His case sparked alarm across the globe because he was able to board an international flight while carrying the incurable disease – potentially infecting other passengers who could fly across the world in a nightmare scenario for health experts.

Patrick Sawyer, 40, was planning to return home to Coon Rapids, Minnesota, to be reunited with his children for two of his daughters' birthdays in August.

But his death in Lagos, Africa's most populous city, has health workers scrambling to trace those who may have been exposed to him across West Africa, including flight attendants and fellow passengers. 

His devastated wife, Decontee Sawyer, 34, shudders when she thinks how close Sawyer came to returning home to the States for his daughters' birthdays carrying the dreaded virus.

'It's a global problem because Patrick could've easily come home with Ebola,' Decontee said to KSTP. 'Easy. Easy. It's close, it's at our front door.It knocked down my front door.'

  

Patients are contagious only once the disease has progressed to the point they show symptoms, according to the WHO. And the most vulnerable are health care workers and relatives who come in much closer contact with the sick.

Still, witnesses say Sawyer, a 40-year-old Liberian Finance Ministry employee en route to a conference in Nigeria, was vomiting and had diarrhea aboard at least one of his flights with some 50 other passengers aboard. Ebola can be contracted from traces of feces or vomit, experts say.

Sawyer was immediately quarantined upon arrival in Lagos - a city of 21 million people - and Nigerian authorities say his fellow travelers were advised of Ebola's symptoms and then were allowed to leave. The incubation period can be as long as 21 days, meaning anyone infected may not fall ill for several weeks.

Health officials rely on 'contact tracing' - locating anyone who may have been exposed, and then anyone who may have come into contact with that person. 

That may prove impossible, given that other passengers journeyed on to dozens of other cities.

 Sawyer, who worked for the Liberian Finance Ministry married his wife Decontee in December 2008, in Coon Rapids.

The couple, who both hold US citizenship are originally from Liberia and Decontee arrived in the country with her family in 1991 and Patrick came in the early 2000s.

The couple are part of the large Liberian community in Minnesota, who moved there in the aftermath of the nation's two civil wars in the 1980s and late 1990s.

His job had taken him back to West Africa to promote economic development there and he was last in the United States in September said Decontee to the Pioneer Press.

His long absences away from home had become common and before he boarded the plane to Lagos last week he had been caring for a sister who was ill with what was revealed to be Ebola, although according to Decontee, he and his family did not know that at the time....he didnt know!

Decontee learned he was ill with Ebola on Thursday and then on Friday she was told her husband of six years had passed away from the virus.

Distraught, Decontee said that she had come forward to share her husband's fate so that the public can understand how quickly the virus can spread.

'Patrick was coming here. What if he still wasn't displaying symptoms yet and came?' Sawyer asked.'He could have brought Ebola here. Someone else could bring Ebola here.'

Health experts say it is unlikely Sawyer could have infected others with the virus that can cause victims to bleed from the eyes, mouth and ears. 

Still, unsettling questions remain such as how could a man whose sister recently died from Ebola manage to board a plane leaving the country?

Back home in Minnesota, Decontee is reeling from the news that her husband has passed away.

'I have three daughters who will never get to know their father,' Decontee Sawyer said in an interview with the Pioneer Press.

Recalling her husband, Decontee said he was 'larger than life' and that she is stills shocked that someone so strong could have their life ended so suddenly.

The current outbreak of Ebola has spread to at least four countries in West Africa since the start of the year. So far, it has claimed 672 victims, and infected 1,093. Countries affected include Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.

The disease spreads through contact with blood, body fluids or contact with tissue from infected people or animals. It has only a 10 per cent survival rate.

U.S. health authorities have warned the deadly virus can spread 'like a forest fire'.

Civil servant Patrick Sawyer collapsed at Lagos airport in Nigeria on July 20 after flying in from Liberia, where he had attended the funeral of his sister, who had also succumbed to the disease.

His plane also landed in Togo on its way to Nigeria, prompting fears that the virus may have also reached a fifth country.

Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are now screening air passengers – but doctors say this may not be effective because Ebola has an incubation period of two to 21 days and cannot be diagnosed on the spot.

Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and damage to the nervous system. There is no vaccine or cure. It is spread by contact with infected blood or other bodily fluids.

All outbreaks since 1976 when Ebola was first identified have been in Africa, with the previous highest death toll being 280.culled