The first Dallas nurse to test positive for Ebola after treating a Liberian national with the virus has been successfully transferred from the Texas hospital where she works to what officials termed the “house of hope” — a massive research center in suburban Washington.
Aircraft took Nina Pham, 26, to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to get her the best treatment available. She arrived at 11:54 p.m. Thursday.
“Her condition is fair, she is stable and she is resting comfortably,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Fauci said she will be treated by highly skilled technicians and doctors at the center. He said the trip late Thursday was likely tiring, but that Ms. Pham is doing well.
“We fully intend to have this patient walk out of this hospital, and we’ll do everything we can to make that happen,” the doctor told reporters outside of the medical center.
Ms. Pham had treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian who arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20, developed symptoms of Ebola and died last week at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
A second nurse, 29-year-old Amber Vinson, tested positive two days after Ms. Pham did. She was taken to a specially equipped facility at Emory University in Atlanta.
Dr. Fauci declined to speculate about Ms. Pham’s relative condition or when she could emerge from the hospital.
“She will get out when she is well enough and free of virus … It is impossible to say how she’s doing compared to others,” he said.
He said NIH’s role as a research center will be beneficial to the outside world.
“We need to learn things for other patients,” he said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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