Few diseases conjure up as much dread as Ebola hemorrhagic fever. If you’re tired of watching sitcoms and romantic comedies, take a look at “Outbreak,” a 1995 film with a stellar cast. It explores the ethical dilemma of a government that faces the decision whether to annihilate a small town where there is an outbreak of a new airborne mutant of Ebola with a mortality of close to 100% in order to prevent escape into the general population with millions of deaths or just try to contain the virus and hope for the best. The science is a bit speculative but the basic premise is more or less believable. The action, including some of the helicopter flying, is almost unbelievable.

Ebola has been the subject of a number of good books including “Ebola” by William Close MD, father of the actress Glenn Close, who was personal physician to Zaire’s infamous President Mobutu. He was a first-hand witness to the original human outbreak originating in the Belgian Catholic Yambuku Mission Hospital. Of 318 cases, 280 died (88%). The use of unsterilized needles and syringes was blamed for the rapid spread but person-to-person spread also occurred in those with close contact with patients alive or deceased.

Ebola and the related filovirus, Marburg, live in monkeys of various species and only rarely jump into humans. Fortunately. Since mortality is still on the order of 50% or more. Genetically engineering these viruses to produce a bioweapon is a distinct possibility. As we saw with the anthrax attack, there are enough adequately trained scientists lying around to do this if one of them should lose his/her grip on basic humanity. This might be especially true of Russian scientists who worked on the very extensive biological warfare program that went on in the Soviet Union up through the tenures of Gorbachev and Yeltsin and who lost their employment after the national collapse.

If you’re sick of counting sheep at night, you might try counting all the ways some madman might come up with to do us all in. Bugs, nukes, poisons, etc. Or you could think of all the ways chocolate has been made irresistible. As for me . . . .

Gordon Short, MD
28 Mar 2014