Only in hindsight will we truly know whether the global response to Ebola was rapid enough to stop it from spreading into a pandemic. Though there are sporadic cases in Europe and one death in the United States from the disease, it’s still, for the most part, a West African outbreak.

But from this vantage point, the U.S. appears to be moving with admirable haste, while not overreacting to some of the more paranoid voices calling for extreme measures.

The decision last week to intensify screening at five airports in the United States that see 95 percent of the travelers from the West African countries hardest hit – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – is such an example. Passengers from that part of the world will have their temperatures checked upon arrival. Fever is a common symptom of Ebola, which is spread only when those infected are symptomatic.

Of course, screening isn’t a guaranteed Ebola block; nothing is guaranteed in this life. But these are sensible, timely steps to deal with a growing threat across the globe that comes appropriately after the first Ebola death on U.S. soil.

What makes the United States’ rapid response to Ebola all the more admirable is the view of it through the prism of another pandemic that began in Africa: AIDS/HIV.

Had U.S. and world leaders reacted with the same sense of urgency to the AIDS virus, many fewer people may have died.