For the first time ever, fear of Ebola has gripped many people in the United States.

That’s not surprising, since this fall marks the first time anyone in our country has contracted or died of the dreaded disease.

But we believe the fear-mongering going on now is unreasonable.

The first human cases of Ebola were reported in 1976 and again in 1979 in Africa. That seemed far removed from life in the United States. Then, unexplainably, the terrible disease seemingly disappeared from the globe for more than a decade.

The next time humans contracted Ebola was in 1994, when 52 people in Gabon, Africa, became ill and 31 of them died.

Although sporadic outbreaks have occurred since then, most were small, infecting tens of people rather than hundreds, all in Africa. Until this year, the worst outbreak was in 2000-01 in Uganda, where 425 people contracted Ebola and 224 died of the disease.

But that all changed this year. Since March, at latest count, 8,997 people in three countries in West Africa — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — have been infected with the disease, and 4,493 of them have died.

That’s scary stuff.

So it’s no surprise that, when someone became ill with Ebola in the United States last month, Americans took notice. Big time.

Their concerns grew with the news that the patient — Thomas Eric Duncan, who traveled to Dallas from Africa — initially was misdiagnosed and sent home, where he potentially could have infected several people, before being readmitted to the Texas hospital a few days later.

Duncan’s subsequent death caught people’s attention, and still more people became aware and concerned with the news that two nurses who treated him also had contracted the virus.

That fear is understandable. Most of us are used to going to the doctor when we’re sick, getting treated and getting well, thanks to the miracle of antibiotics and other treatments available through modern science.

The idea of an illness that is so debilitating, difficult to treat and deadly has been foreign to us, for the most part, since penicillin and vaccinations against disease came on the medical scene. Now, we’re faced with our mortality in a way that most of us are unfamiliar with, and we feel very vulnerable.

But there are good signs, too. For instance, Monday was the last day of quarantine for Duncan’s fiancée and three children in the home. As of press time, they hadn’t developed the dreaded disease, despite being in the same home with him for days while he was experiencing symptoms during the onset of his illness.

Although two nurses in Texas also become ill with Ebola, so far the other 68 people who cared for Duncan have not.

According to information from the CDC, the disease becomes far more contagious as it worsens, but it is spread only by contact with bodily fluids. That is why health care providers who care for Ebola patients are at the greatest risk for infection, and why it is so important that they take meticulous precautions.

Let it be known that we do not underestimate the danger of this disease. It is extremely infectious, can be deadly, and has the capacity to overwhelm our health care system. That’s why prevention is so important.

Fortunately, we have a strong health care system staffed with talented, devoted and well-trained medical professionals who are doing everything they can to prevent the spread of the disease. That isn’t the case in the three West African countries now overwhelmed by the epidemic, all of which struggle to provide basic health care. And that is why medical scientists are working to develop a vaccine, and why President Barack Obama has ordered the National Guard to help curb and contain the outbreak in Africa.  

We are concerned, however, that people traveling here from West Africa are checked for symptoms only when they enter the United States, without any follow-up monitoring. Duncan’s case illustrates the possibility that someone could be harboring the disease, but not yet showing symptoms, when they arrive here.

We’re also disappointed that no rigorous effort seems to have been put into developing a vaccine against Ebola until it began threatening developed nations. That oversight — or complacence — has come back to haunt us.

However, it is important to remember that a vaccine is available now for a disease that has claimed far more lives than Ebola. So, if you’re concerned about your health, make sure you get your flu shot this fall.