Nina Pham, one of the U.S. nurses to contract Ebola, landed in Maryland on Thursday night on her way to be treated at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.
{mosads}Pham is being transferred from the Dallas hospital where she caught the virus while treating the original U.S. Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan.
The move relieves some pressure on the Dallas hospital, which is having to deal with 75 of its staff members being monitored for Ebola themselves.
“With many of the medical professionals who would normally staff the intensive care unit sidelined for continuous monitoring, it is in the best interest of Nina, hospital employees, nurses, physicians and the community to give the hospital an opportunity to prepare for whatever comes next,” the Dallas hospital said in a statement earlier on Thursday.
“I appreciate everything that my coworkers have done to care for me at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas,” Pham said in the statement. “I’m doing really well thanks to this team, which is the best in the world.”
The hospital has faced questions about its readiness to handle Ebola after it came to light that health workers did not wear full protective gear for two days before tests came back on Duncan.