One piece of advice the Centers for Disease Control has offered the American public about Ebola: Get a flu shot.

That advice sounds almost nonsensical. Ebola and influenza (we speak here of the respiratory virus, not the “stomach flu”) are two different illnesses. Ebola has a high mortality rate (the best estimates regarding the current epidemic is that about 70 percent of the people infected die) but is relatively difficult to transmit; influenza is highly contagious but has a much lower death rate.

Still, there is wisdom in the CDC’s advice. To begin with, despite the Ebola hype, the odds remain overwhelming that more Americans will die this winter from influenza than from Ebola. A flu shot is never really a bad idea.

Beyond that, there is a hidden problem with Ebola hysteria: The initial symptoms of the two ailments are similar.

We can be certain that there will be a flu outbreak this winter. There always is. And if we are all aflutter about the killer virus from Africa and regard every fever as a sign of Ebola, the hospitals will be flooded with influenza cases fearful that their illness is really Ebola — and expecting it to be handled accordingly.

That’s a nightmare scenario. Nobody can relish the notion of emergency rooms staffed by nurses and physicians routinely attired in hazmat suits.

Our expectation is that hospitals and clinics will regard flu symptoms as most likely influenza — but with a bit more attention paid to the red flags apparently overlooked in the first Ebola case in Dallas.

We also expect that the going will be considerably easier if there are fewer people with flu symptoms to begin with. And that’s where the vaccination advice comes in.

No, the flu vaccine is never foolproof; in some seasons it has been only 60 percent effective. But 60 percent is better than zero, and the more people for whom the shot works, the fewer there are transmitting the virus.

—Free Press of Mankato