Ebola victim in Dallas is from Liberia. ..(photo)

The Ebola patient was named today as Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who had traveled to the U.S. from Liberia on September 20 to visit his family.

His sister Mai Wureh said her sick brother told officials the first time he went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital that he was visiting from the West African country in the so-called 'Ebola hot zone' - before he was sent home with antibiotics, a critically missed opportunity to prevent others being exposed to the disease.

Mr Duncan is now in a 'serious but stable condition' and has been quarantined since Sunday - although he was in the U.S. for almost a week before being isolated. He is 'awake, talking and asking for food', doctors said today.

According to The New York Times Duncan worked for shipping company in the Liberian capital Monrovia but had recently quit his job and gotten a visa to come to the U.S.

The TImes also revealed that Mr Duncan may contracted Ebola while helping carrying his landlord's seriously ill daughter to hospital. She passed away from the virus the following day. The landlord's son and two neighbors who came in contact with the woman also died.