Cops quarantined, Pentagon partially locked down, a hazmat crew scrambled... all because a PR exec vomited: Police say Ebola scare woman 'said she'd visited Africa' - but her firm insists she hasn't

Pentagon police locked down a building entrance and a portion of a parking lot on Friday after a woman vomited and told emergency personnel that she had recently been to West Africa, officials said.

Lobbyist Terry Thames, believed to be 54, was named by her company Total Spectrum today as the woman who vomited while she was commuting on a Metro bus shortly after 9am on Friday.

First responders said she claimed to have been in Liberia two weeks ago, according to Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Crosson. She was taken to a hospital in Fairfax County, Virginia and was quarantined.

However an employee at her company insisted today that Ms Thames, from north Virginia, had not traveled to West Africa.  

 

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The Ebola scare was caused by a woman, identified by her company today as Terry Thames, who vomited in the parking lot and said she had recently been to West Africa

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A Pentagon police officer directs a woman away from a closed-off Pentagon parking lot where a woman who claimed to have recently traveled to Africa vomited on Friday

According to defense officials, seven Pentagon officers who assisted the woman were being isolated and might be kept in a tent at the Pentagon overnight. 

Several people who were on the shuttle bus also have been isolated. 

Lt Crosson said that out of an abundance of caution, all pedestrian and vehicle traffic was stopped across 17 lanes of the huge parking lot, shortly before 10am on Friday. 

A building entrance and parking lanes were temporarily closed.

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Lobbyist Terry Thames was named by her company today as the woman who fell and is currently being quarantined for suspected Ebola 

The Pentagon force protection officers initiated infectious disease protocols.

Ms Thames works for Total Spectrum a lobbying and public relations firm which does government-related work. 

Managing Director Steve Gordon said in a statement that the Pentagon had contacted him and he said she had not been out of the Washington area. 

The lobbyist was on a Metro bus and was not believed to have been traveling to the Pentagon, which is also near a central transport hub. 

However she transferred to a shuttle bus taking guests to a change of responsibility ceremony for General Joe Dunford, who is taking over as commandant of the Marine Corps. 

The Pentagon official said it did not immediately appear that she was invited to the ceremony. 

She got off the shuttle before it left the Pentagon parking lot and then vomited. 

Lt Col Crosson's stated today: 'During the response, the individual indicated that she had recently visited Africa. 

'Out of an abundance of caution, all pedestrian and vehicular traffic was suspended around the South Parking lot, while Arlington County responded to the scene. At 0953, the individual was taken to the Virginia Hospital Center.