Created by CDC microbiologist Cynthia Goldsmith, this colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion. Photo provided by the CDC.

The Chief Nurse for Emory Healthcare wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post defending the hospital’s decision to receive and treat patients infected with the Ebola virus.

Susan Grant’s editorial, titled “I’m the head nurse at Emory. This is why we wanted to bring the Ebola patients to the U.S.”, ran on Aug. 6.

Emory accepted two patients this weekend who were flown into Atlanta after being infected with the virus while caring for Ebola patients in West Africa.

“People responded viscerally on social media, fearing that we risked spreading Ebola to the United States,” she wrote. “Those fears are unfounded and reflect a lack of knowledge about Ebola and our ability to safely manage and contain it.”

To read the full editorial, click here.

The patients flew into Atlanta aboard specially equipped jets and will be kept in an isolation unit at the hospital. Emory University officials said the hospital’s isolation unit is one of only four in the country designed for this kind of care, designed in collaboration with the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control.

Ebola is a highly lethal virus, according to the World Health Organization, with a death rate of up to 90 percent. While health experts have assured the public that there’s little risk of a wider infection, the anxiety has put hospitals in other parts of the country on alert.