Forty Tongues Spoken at Ebola Apartments in Dallas

Before the Centers for Disease Control could find those who came in contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to fall ill with Ebola in the U.S., it had to find people who could talk to them.

The Vickery Meadow neighborhood in Dallas, where Duncan arrived from Liberia last month, is home to residents from 80 countries who speak 40 different languages and dialects.

Many are refugees who stay long enough in the tattered neighborhood to get established before hunting for better housing, said R.J. Holt, a minister at nearby Park Cities Baptist Church, which works with other religious institutions to help them. They’re eager to escape deteriorating housing and crime in what was once a haven for affluent singles, Holt said.

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