Addressing Ebola at the White House during a 15-minute impromptu, but extensive, discussion late Thursday, President Obama said "We are taking this very seriously at the highest levels starting with me."

Obama said he wasn't proposing a travel ban on visitors from West Africa where Ebola has spread, but he might consider one at some point. He said a travel ban didn't make sense because it is more difficult to trace the disease when people who carry it use alternative travel methods.

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The president said he had complete faith in high level officials dealing with the disease, but would consider appointing somebody to oversee all Ebola responses. He didn't name who might become that Ebola czar.

"We are taking this seriously, but it's something really hard to catch," Obama said. "I wanted everybody today to know that everybody here was on the case."

Meanwhile, Ebola patient nurse Nina Pham was transported late Thursday to the National Institutes for Health facility in Bethesda, Md. for advanced treatment. It was one of four U.S. units equipped as biocontainment facilities.

The 26-year-old nurse took ill following treating Thomas Duncan, who contracted the disease in Liberia before returning to Dallas where he died on Oct. 8.

A line of fellow hospital healthcare workers lined the route from the Dallas hospital to an ambulance earlier in the day as Pham left. She was transported by a chartered plane from Dallas' Love Field to Maryland. An ambulance accompanied by motorcade transported her to NIH-Bethesda.

Dallas hospital officials released a statement by Pham saying she was "doing really well." Pham said she was "so thankful for the outpouring of love and support from friends and family, my coworkers and complete strangers."

Meantime, a second Texas nurse testing positive for the deadly virus, Amber Joy Vinson, 29, was transferred to Emory University at Atlanta. She was transported Wednesday to Emory's biohazard infectious disease center. Vinson may have been ill days before the Ebola diagnosis, according to reports Thursday.

Both Pham and Vinson treated Duncan. Seventy-four additional hospital intensive care personnel now were out of commission do to the need for continuous monitoring, hospital officials said as they prepared "for whatever comes next," said Wendell Watson, a hospital spokesman.

TagsEbola Virus, Ebola patient, Virus, outbreak