Questions remain about how Dallas nurse got Ebola

TEXAS -- The nurse wore a mask, gown, shield and gloves as she helped care for a dying Ebola patient in Texas.

And a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she tested positive for Ebola, health officials are still trying to figure out how exactly she caught it.

"Something went wrong, and we need to find out why and what," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The woman, Nina Pham, took basic precautions while treating Ebola-stricken Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan at a Dallas hospital. Now she is the first person to have contracted the deadly virus in the United States.

There are few details that are known about what might have gone wrong.

On Monday, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, told reporters that it's still unknown how the infection occurred, only that a "breach in protocol" for treating a patient happened.

Frieden said state and federal health officials are re-examining those protocols, including the removal of protective gear after contact with an Ebola patient and if it might be helpful to spray virus-killing solution on workers as they leave an isolation unit. He said Monday that the nurse is "clinically stable."

On Monday, she got a blood transfusion from American Ebola survivor Kent Brantly, according to Jeremy Blume, a spokesman for Samaritan's Purse. Brantly was working for Samaritan's Purse in Liberia when he contracted the virus.

Pham, 26, graduated from Texas Christian University's nursing program in 2010, WFAA reported. According to the website for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, she received certification in critical care nursing on August 1, less than two months before she began caring for Duncan.

Tom Ha, a family friend, described Pham as a devout Catholic who always "puts other people's interests ahead of her own." It's a philosophy she shares with her family, he told CNN.

"They always helped other people and they take pride in helping other people," he said. "That's what this family's all about."