A Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital health care worker in Dallas who had extensive contact with the first Ebola patient to die in the United States has contracted the disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed the news Sunday afternoon after an official test.

The infected person detected a fever Friday night and drove herself to the Presbyterian emergency room, where she was placed in isolation 90 minutes later. A blood sample sent to the state health lab in Austin confirmed Saturday night that she had Ebola the first person to contract the disease in the United States.

The director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that the infection in the health care worker, who was not on the organizations watch list for people who had contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, resulted from a breach in protocol.

"We have spoken with the health care worker," who cannot "identify the specific breach" that allowed the infection to spread, said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. The CDC has sent additional staff members to Dallas to assist with the response, he said.

Frieden said exposure can result from a single inadvertent slip. He cautioned: "Unfortunately it is possible in the coming days we will see additional cases of Ebola" in health care workers.

Texas health commissioner David Lakey said the health care worker had "extensive contact" with Duncan. The nurse, who missed two days of work before going to the emergency room, is believed to have had contact with one person while symptomatic. Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person, can only be transmitted from infected people showing symptoms.

"We have been preparing for an event like this, Lakey said.

Presbyterian chief clinical officer Daniel Varga said the exposure occurred during Duncans second visit to the hospital. Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola in the United States, went to the Presbyterian emergency room Sept. 25 and was sent home with antibiotics only to return to the hospital on Sept. 28. He was diagnosed with Ebola and died Oct. 8.

It is not clear how the health care provider contracted Ebola. According to Duncan's patient records released by the family to The Associated Press, this is what happened at Presbyterian:

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Health care worker at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas tests positive for Ebola