So much for U.S. officials' chant: "We know how to contain Ebola in the United States."
The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States died Wednesday in Dallas. Thomas Eric Duncan carried the deadly virus with him from his home in Liberia, though he showed no signs when he left for the United States. He fell sick a few days after he arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20, and four days later was sent home from Dallas' Texas Health Presbyterian emergency room even though he had a fever and told health workers there that he had recently been in Liberia where Ebola is raging. Three days later an ambulance took him back to the hospital, where he stayed in isolation.
Now at least 48 people are being monitored -- some in isolation -- after having contact with him. One is suspected of already falling ill. Some children who were around him went to school for several days before being placed in isolation.
In Spain, an Ebola-strickened nurse assistant became the first patient diagnosed in Europe. She had only been in the room with a repatriated Ebola patient twice, and both times she wore protective clothing. A court has ordered her dog be put to death, and more people there are being quarantined.
Authorities say the disease can be spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an already sick person -- or apparently an exposed pet or mammal (bats and apes are said to have begun the outbreak in Africa).
Authorities also say we know how to contain the disease. If that's true, it's certainly looking as though we're not very proficient at it.