DALLAS (AP) — The sister of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States says he told officials the first time he went to the hospital that he was visiting from Liberia.

Mai Wureh told The Associated Press that her brother, Thomas Eric Duncan, went to a Dallas emergency room on Friday and was sent him away with antibiotics. He returned two days later to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital and was admitted.

Dr. Mark Lester confirmed Wednesday that a nurse asked Duncan on his first visit whether he had been in an area affected by the Ebola outbreak that has killed thousands in West Africa but that the "information was not fully communicated throughout the whole team."

The disease is not contagious until symptoms begin, and it takes close contact with bodily fluids to spread.