Oct. 13, 2014 -- Nina Pham, a 26-year-old nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, is the first person to catch Ebola in the U.S.

On Monday, Pham’s family confirmed her identity to WFAA, the ABC news affiliate in Dallas, the station said.

She is stable and has been speaking with the CDC as they try to understand how she was exposed to the virus.

Pham was part of the team at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who was caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian citizen who was infected with Ebola in Liberia before traveling to the U.S. in late September.

She wasn’t one of the 48 people who were already being watched because they had contact with Duncan while he was contagious. Her diagnosis has put the U.S. health care system on alert that better training and protective equipment might be needed before all hospitals can safely care for Ebola patients.

“We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection control because even a single infection is unacceptable,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, in a news conference on Monday.

Only one person is thought to have been in close contact with Pham when she began showing symptoms. That person is being monitored, Frieden said.

Health officials aren’t sure how Pham was exposed to the virus. On Sunday, Daniel Varga, MD, chief clinical officer at Texas Health Resources, said she was wearing a gown, gloves, mask, and face shield while she cared for Duncan at the hospital.

Frieden said CDC staff in Dallas had been working “through the night” to review protocols at the hospital to make it “safer and easier” for staff to care for Ebola patients.

Disease detectives are also working to identify and interview “the large number” of hospital workers who were involved in Duncan’s care and make sure they are actively monitored.

“The thinking here is straightforward,” Frieden said. “If this one individual was infected -- and we don’t know how -- within the isolation unit, then it’s possible other individuals could have been infected as well.”