Though smallpox and anthrax loom as the likeliest boogeymen in a bioterrorism nightmare, the rare Ebola virus still evokes particular dread. This untreatable virus rapidly kills 80% to 90% of the humans it infects, and no one knows where it lurks in the years between its small-scale outbreaks, up to now confined to central Africa. Scientists in the former Soviet Union reportedly weaponized the virus.1
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listed Ebola as a "select agent" in 1996, meaning that at least three antiterrorism statutes regulate it. Ebola is also one of the potential bioterrorism agents now targeted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. NIAID is seeking $1.4 billion for biodefense in fiscal 2003, a $1.2 billion jump over 2002. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) "has had a longstanding commitment to work on emerging infectious diseases, and this is a huge opportunity ...
