A Dallas healthcare worker who contracted Ebola while treating a U.S. patient was identified Monday as Nina Pham, USA Today reported.
Pham, a 26-year-old Texas Christian University graduate, is the first to contract the Ebola virus from another person in the U.S.
The nurse became infected while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the first to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. after traveling from West Africa. Duncan died last week, the first Ebola fatality in the U.S.
Pham was diagnosed with the virus over the weekend and was listed Monday as "clinically stable," said Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Over 4,000 people have died in the largest Ebola outbreak in history, centered in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the World Health Organization.
It is not clear how Pham, who got her nursing degree in 2010, contracted the virus of which there is no known cure. Frieden said the infection is the result of a "breach of protocol," but later clarified his statement saying neither Pham nor Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital that treated Duncan are at fault.
Frieden also reassured the public that the protective gear worn by healthcare workers, including body suits, masks and gloves, are effective.
"The existence of the first case of Ebola spread in the U.S. changes some things and it doesn't change some things," Frieden said according to USA Today. "It doesn't change the fact that we know how Ebola spreads. It doesn't change the fact that it's possible to treat Ebola safely. But it does change substantially how we approach it."
U.S. airports have begun screening tests to keep potentially infected travelers from Ebola-stricken countries out. John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York began screenings on Saturday and four more airports are to begin on Thursday, USA Today reported.
But the Ebola outbreak has brought center stage the sprawling economic gap that lies between the U.S. and the West African countries that do not have the same resources.
"The outbreak spotlights the dangers of the world's growing social economic inequalities," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said Monday. "The rich get the best care. The poor are left to die."
