Liberia's head of state called the mayor of Dallas to extend a personal apology for her country's role in transmitting the deadly Ebola strain to the U.S., but the Texan absolved her of any responsibility, according to a report.
The Guardian reported that Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings that she felt accountable for the disease, transferred to U.S. shores by Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan.
Duncan, who succumbed to the disease more than a week ago, was widely suspected of misleading Liberian officials who questioned him on whether he had come into contact with Ebola prior to departing the country.
"The mayor said that there was a call to him personally, and that the Liberian president had mentioned apologies, and, in his words, a little bit of responsibility that this was even happening," Rex Howe, a pastor at Scofield Memorial church, told the Guardian.
However, Rawlings refused to hold Sirleaf responsible for Duncan's infecting of two Dallas-based health workers. Rawlings was quoted as saying "this is a global community, and there was no fault by the Lbierian people," the publication reported.
Read The Guardian's full report here.