Doctors said Sunday that the health of Ashoka Mukpo, a patient being treated for Ebola at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, is improving.

“With the Ebola virus, you never relax completely, but we think he has made great progress,” Phil Smith, a doctor and infectious disease expert at the medical center said in a press conference.

Mukpo, a 33-year-old freelance journalist, contracted Ebola while working with NBC News in Liberia, and arrived at the medical center for treatment on Oct. 5. He is the fifth American with Ebola to return to the U.S. for treatment during this outbreak, which has killed more than 4,000 people according to the World Heath Organization.

Mukpo is being treated with an experimental drug called brincidofovir, or CMX001. He also received a blood transfusion from Kent Brantly, an American doctor who survived Ebola, in hopes the antibodies Brantly developed would help Mukpo’s body fight the virus. Earlier this week, doctors announced Mukpo had made significant progress.

“He’s been taking in some fluids and drinking Gatorade,” Smith said. “But everyone needs to be reminded that this is still a very serious illness we’re dealing with and no one has a lot of experience treating it.”

“Ashoka is improving. Happy with his progress. With Ebola, you never relax completely, but he’s made progress.” – Smith #NebraskaMedEbola

— Nebraska Med Center (@NebraskaMed) October 12, 2014

Sunday’s update from Nebraska Medical Center came in response to the announcement that this strain of Ebola has spread within the U.S. for the first time. A healthcare worker in Dallas apparently contracted the disease while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, an Ebola patient who later died.

Health officials in Texas said the worker may have contracted the disease due to a “breach in protocol.” The doctors from the Nebraska Medical Center say they have no reason to believe at this time that they would treat the new patient in Dallas. They emphasized the importance of equipping hospitals across the U.S. to treat and prevent the disease.

“The cases in Dallas emphasize that this is an interconnected world. We need to strengthen our safety net and educate travelers,” Mark Rupp, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Nebraska Medical Center said. “All hospitals need to be prepared. This won’t be the last outbreak that we see.”

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