Ebola caution: Even though the danger is slight, monitoring is critical

The good news is that the man who traveled from Newark airport by bus to Durham Saturday has tested negative for Ebola.

The bad news is that he went for about 48 hours in contact with people at airports, on a bus and in his home county before he exhibited signs of a fever.

And that, in a nutshell, is why it is so important that there is a consistent and ironclad policy about dealing with those who return from West Africa.

If we know how we need to handle patients like this, we can watch them for a little while and then send them on their way, alerting their home health departments. That way, just in case we get another Kaci Hickox, we can make sure that there is minimal contact between a person who might innocently have carried the disease to the U.S. -- and get them the treatment they need at the first sign of infection.

And we can keep those who are irresponsible from deciding they know better and ignoring the rules that are in place to keep the public safe.

It only takes one slip. And our job should be to make sure there is not even one.

Published in Editorials on November 3, 2014 11:03 AM