The family of a Dallas health care worker diagnosed with the Ebola weekend after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan has released details of her identity. She is nurse Nina Pham, 26, who became infected while helping treat Duncan before he died.

Pham is the first person to contract the disease while in the U.S.

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Nina Pham, raised in a Vietnamese family in Fort Worth, graduated from Texas Christian University's nursing program in 2010. On Friday, Pham admitted herself to hospital after her temperature spiked. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control said her condition was "clinically stable."

Nina's uncle Jason Nguyen, contacted by MailOnline, confirmed that she is the nurse who contracted Ebola while involved in the Duncan's treatment.

"Nina has contracted Ebola, she is my niece. Her mother called me on Saturday and told me; 'Nina has caught Ebola,'" Jason Nguyen said.

Meanwhile, CDC Director Thomas Frieden apologized to officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, about his comments Sunday that Pham's infection was the result of a "breach of protocol."  He said his comments did not reflect on Pham or the hospital's efforts.

"I apologize if people thought I was criticizing the hospital," Frieden said at a press conference Monday. "And I feel awful that a health care worker became infected while helping an Ebola patient."

Investigators have yet to determine how Pham was infected. But he stood by the protocols  of using face masks, gloves and other equipment, saying they have proven safe for health care workers for decades.

More than 4,000 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak, many of them in the West African nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The CDC has instructed hospital workers across the U.S. to watch for patients with fever or other Ebola symptoms who have traveled from those nations.

In Manila, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan issued a statement calling the outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times."

Chan also stressed that the outbreak spotlights the dangers of the world's growing social and economic inequalities.

"The rich get the best care. The poor are left to die," Chan said.

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