The article says they placed them in quarantine based on their symptoms and recent travel history.

Yes, but was this person intercepted at a point of entry into the United States, or did they go to a healthcare facility voluntarily once they started noticing symptoms, after they were already in the country?

The former implies that there may be sufficient mechanisms in place to prevent a repeat incident. The latter does not.

The person left Liberia on 19 Sept and arrived here on 20 and had no symptoms when entering the country. On the 24th he developed symptoms, on the 26th he sought care and the 28th was admitted to the hospital.

This is from the CDC briefing happening now.

So everyone he came in contact with for four days between the 24th and 28th is potentially infected. Hopefully a small set of people.

No, ebola is not contagious while it is asymptomatic.

You need to read the article, he started showing symptoms on the 24th, he was put into the isolation ward on the 28th

FWIW, though DFW is a very big airport, there are no direct flights from Africa that land there. If they ended up in Dallas, they at least stopped somewhere outside Africa before they got there.

I've always traveled through De Gaulle on my way to and from West Africa (used to take Air Afrique, but these days Air France, Ethiopian and Air Maroc all go to Bamako). However, since the patient wasn't symptomatic until they were in Dallas, transits and port-of-entry don't have to worry. There's a large, fairly dense immigrant neighborhood just east of the hospital in question (the IRC does a lot of refugee relocations there), so there may have been exposure in that area.

That would have to be somewhere in Europe.

There are flights from west Africa to both Atlanta and Houston, plus some other cities. United services Nigeria and Ghana out of Houston and Dulles respectively, Delta has some flights to the same cities out of their hubs.

It is most certainly possible to fly from west Africa to the US without transiting a third region.

ITA thinks there are routes from Monrovia to DFW which do not transit Europe. For example there is one via Casablanca and Montreal.

From the article:

"The patient developed symptoms days after returning to Texas from West Africa and was admitted into isolation on Sunday at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas."

Recently traveled, self-admitted to hospital. Bad news.

Why? I thought Ebola wasn't transmissible until symptoms appear.

You're correct. For instance, there's a lot of ill-founded concern around the flight the patient took into the US. The CDC is doing its damnedest to quell fears around it -- the patient wasn't symptomatic until four days after arrival -- but reason isn't always effective at moderating hysteria. The New York Times' headline, for instance, is currently "Airline Passenger With Ebola Is Under Treatment in Dallas," which is downright irresponsible.

As for "bad news," the patient self-referred to the hospital, Ebola was not suspected, and the patient was initially sent home to recover. (S)he returned once conditions worsened and was then diagnosed with Ebola.

Specifically, the patient arrived in the US on the 20th, became ill on the 24th, visited the hospital on the 26th, and was admitted on the 28th. Which means that Dallas had someone symptomatic in its midst for four days, which is rather unfortunate.

Cite: http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/s930-ebola-confirmed-...