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The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States died in a Dallas hospital Wednesday, a little more than a week after his diagnosis exposed gaps in the nation’s defenses against the disease and set off a scramble to track down anyone exposed to him.

Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, was pronounced dead at 7:51 a.m. at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where he was admitted Sept. 28 and had been kept in isolation, according to spokesman Wendell Watson.

“Mr. Duncan succumbed to an insidious disease,” Watson said in a statement.

Duncan carried the deadly virus with him from his home in Liberia, though he showed no symptoms when he left for the United States. He arrived in Dallas Sept. 20 and fell ill several days later. His condition was downgraded during the weekend from serious to critical.

Others in Dallas still are being monitored as health officials try to contain the virus that has ravaged West Africa, with more than 3,400 people reported dead. They also are trying to tamp down anxiety among residents frightened of contracting Ebola, though the disease can be spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an already sick person.

Health officials have identified 10 people, including seven health workers, who had direct contact with Duncan while he was contagious. Another 38 people also may have come into contact with him. The four people living in the northeast Dallas apartment where Duncan stayed have been isolated in a private residence.

Duncan’s family had visited Texas Health Presbyterian earlier in the week and glimpsed Duncan using a camera system, but said Tuesday they had declined to view him again because the first time had been too upsetting.

“What we saw was very painful. It didn’t look good,” Duncan’s nephew, Josephus Weeks, said Tuesday.

The hospital has changed its explanation several times about when Duncan arrived and what he said about his travel history. It has acknowledged that Duncan told them on his first visit that he came from West Africa.

The Dallas County medical examiner’s office will not be receiving Duncan’s body, but spokesman Stephen Kurtz said he did not know Wednesday what the alternate arrangements would be.