--- description: The agency says it will send a team of Ebola experts to any hospital with an Ebola case in the future title: CDC Deploys Ebola Swat Team to Dallas image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [ebola](/tag/ebola/) ## ebola Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # CDC Deploys Ebola SWAT Team to Dallas  by [Alice Park](/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Oct 14, 2014 8:18 PM CUT  by [Alice Park](/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Oct 14, 2014 8:18 PM CUT A team of experts with experience treating Ebola patients in Africa and containing outbreaks there is now in Dallas working to contain the deadly disease after the first two diagnoses on U.S. soil, a top health official said Tuesday. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the team is helping officials at Texas Health Presbyterian, and was joined by two nurses from Emory University Hospital, where U.S. aid workers were successfully treated for Ebola. The team’s job is to enhance safety and infection control measures at the hospital. “A single infection in a health care workers is unacceptable,” Frieden said. “What we are doing at this point is looking at everything we can do to minimize the risk so those caring for her can do so safely and effectively.” Frieden said that it’s still not clear how a nurse, Nina Pham, got infected while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient diagnosed on U.S. soil who later died. But every step in how Ebola patients are handled will be scrutinized and improved, Frieden said. Asked why the CDC didn’t send a team as soon as Duncan was diagnosed, Frieden said: “We did send some expertise in infection control but think in retrospect, with 20-20 hindsight, we could have sent a more robust hospital infection control team, and been more hands on at the hospital on day one about exactly how this \[case\] should be managed. We will do that from now on any time we have a confirmed case.” In an encouraging sign, health officials said Pham has only had direct contact with one person— and that person isn’t sick, but is being monitored. Dozens of people who had direct or indirect contact with Duncan are still being monitored. “It is decreasingly likely that any of them will develop Ebola,” Frieden said. ### See The Tobacco Leaves That Could Cure Ebola  Tobacco plants are grown for six weeks in the Medicago greenhouse in Quebec City so their leaves are large enough to serve as a factory for making antibodies. The plants are not modified or genetically altered in any way during this time. Mathieu Belanger—Reuters  Researchers at Icon Genetics in Germany prepare the DNA coding for antibodies that can neutralize Ebola. These genes are inserted into a soil bacterium that easily infects the tobacco plant cells. Once in the cells, the gene is treated like any other plant gene and the plant starts churning out the antibodies. Sean Gallup—Getty Images  To infect the leaves with the antibody-containing bacteria, the plants are submerged in a water solution of the loaded bacteria. Plant cells have plenty of empty spaces filled with air, so a vacuum removes the air and the water, along with the bacteria and antibody genes, flow in. Mathieu Belanger—Reuters  The leaf at the bottom has not been treated. The leaf on top is now an antibody-making factory. The plant's normal machinery starts making the antibody as if it is a plant protein. Mathieu Belanger—Reuters  Researchers at Icon Genetics grind the leaves down to filter out the antibodies. Sean Gallup—Getty Images  Ultraviolet light reveals the clusters of cells that are busy making antibodies. One kg of leaves produces about 5g of antibodies, which is about a third of the dose required to treat an Ebola patient. 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