It's official: ebola is with us.

• Author: Orient, Jane M.
• Position: HEALTH BEAT - Fighting the ebola virus

SOME 3,000 American soldiers are arriving in Africa to fight an Ebola epidemic that is doubling about every three weeks, with the number of infections projected to reach 1,400,000 by January. Pres. Barack Obama says, "It will require an 'air bridge' to get health workers and medical supplies to areas that are affected." Meanwhile, the virus has used the air bridge of a commercial flight to reach Dallas, Texas--and beyond.

Although a large number of specialists agree that the likelihood of a widespread outbreak is "vanishingly small," owing to our "highly sophisticated public health system," numerous breaches in our invulnerability already are manifest:

* The hospital where the patient initially presented failed to follow Federal guidelines. He told a nurse that he had been in Liberia; he should have been placed in isolation and tested for Ebola immediately. Instead, he was sent home on antibiotics, which are useless for viral infections.

* The patient vomited copiously outside his apartment before returning to the hospital by ambulance. No precautions were taken in cleaning up.

* The ambulance was kept in service with no special disinfecting, and the crews were not informed.

* The patient was treated under BSL-2 (biosafety level 2) conditions, although the World Health Organization states that BSL-4 precautions are needed for working with Ebola virus.

* Rules requiring international passengers to fill out a detailed health questionnaire have been slow to be implemented, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called them "critical to protecting Americans from dangerous diseases spread by travelers"--in 2006.

Officials keep reassuring people that the virus is not "airborne" and that "direct contact" with a sick person is required to get infected. It is not possible, we are told, to get Ebola from a person who does not have symptoms. We just need hand-washing and other "simple, basic precautions."

Meanwhile, CDC officials are in full hazmat gear, and some say that you need a buddy to make sure that every square millimeter of your skin is covered at all times--a tiny pinprick through your glove, and you have Ebola.

The official website of the Public Health Agency of Canada stated that "airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated." Then, sometime between Oct. 1-2, the Agency quietly changed the language of their Pathogen Safety Data Sheet on Ebola to softer, less...