Given the degree and ease of international travel, it was probably inevitable that the Ebola virus would reach the United States from West Africa.
What is not inevitable is that the virus will become as deadly and widespread here as there. The few confirmed cases in America are confirmation of a threat. They do not constitute a crisis.
And there should be no crisis if the necessary precautions are taken.
Potential patients need to be more quickly identified and given appropriate treatment. And clinical and hospital staffs need to be properly trained and equipped to provide that treatment safely.
Protocols — to use the term of the health care industry — should address every aspect of dealing with Ebola and those procedures should be aggressively followed and enforced.
As the Los Angeles Times noted in an editorial: “The United States does not remotely have an Ebola crisis, but it is beginning to have a crisis of confidence in the Obama administration’s handling of the matter.”
It is that confidence that this editorial is intended to bolster.
The United States has the medical infrastructure and personnel to more than adequately deal with this extremely limited presence of Ebola.
Indeed, the virus lends itself to containment in a medical environment such as ours. It is neither airborne nor waterborne. It is spread through direct contact with the body fluids — such as blood and perspiration — of an infected individual.
While life-threatening, it need not be a fatal disease. Certainly not if we take the necessary precautions.
Sun Herald, Biloxi
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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