CDC: Rapid Response Team Will Visit Any New Ebola Cases

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that a rapid response team will be sent to any hospital in the U.S. where an Ebola patient is staying to ensure hospital workers are following the proper protocol.

The announcement comes after Nina Pham, a worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, was diagnosed with Ebola after closely tending to patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the highly-infectious disease last week.

Although Pham reportedly wore all of the protective gear when treating Duncan, the CDC says at one point she violated protocol. Pham reportedly cannot point to a specific incident in which she would have been infected by the virus.

CDC Director Dr. Tom Friden told the Associated Press that he wishes the CDC, based in Atlanta, Georgia, had sent in a rapid response team when Duncan was diagnosed, as it could have prevented the infection from spreading to Pham.

"That might have prevented this infection," he said. Frieden added that now with the rapid response team ready, "we will be there, hands-on, within hours" of another diagnosis.

Pham is reportedly conscious and receiving care in Dallas for Ebola. The patient has received a plasma transfusion from Dr. Kent Brantly, an aid worker who contracted Ebola in July while working in West Africa. Brantly survived the virus after receiving experimental medication in Nebraska, and doctors believe antibodies in his system may be able to help Pham's immune system fend off the disease.