There are two ways you can read the news that the Centers for Disease Control has issued its highest level alert on the Ebola virus:

1. You can ascribe it to the agency being extra cautious; or

2. You could postulate that they are convinced the virus will eventually reach our shores

NBC News:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday ramped up its response to the expanding Ebola outbreak, a move that frees up hundreds of employees and signals the agency sees the health emergency as a potentially long and serious one.

The CDC’s “level 1 activation” is reserved for the most serious public health emergencies, and the agency said the move was appropriate considering the outbreak’s “potential to affect many lives.” The CDC took a similar move in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and again in 2009 during the bird-flu threat.

The Ebola outbreak is believed to have killed 932 people in the African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Guinea. Two American aid workers sickened by the disease were flown back to the U.S. for treatment at a medical facility in Atlanta.

The CDC is deploying additional staff to the four affected countries, and said 50 more disease-control experts should arrive there in the next 30 days. It also issued instructions to airlines that may come into contact with passengers from the affected countries designed to minimize the chance of infection.

I suppose it depends on how quickly world health officials can get a handle on the crisis in West Africa. If the spread of the disease can be slowed relatively quickly, it is much less likely to make it to America.

But from what I've been reading, authorities are nowhere near getting the Ebola outbreak under control, and in fact, the spread of the disease is accelerating. That's why I think the CDC alerrt means they are convinced that eventually, America will have to deal with its own outbreak of the virus.