Viral bioterrorism: Learning the lesson of Ebola virus in West Africa 2013–2015

Current Laboratory Biosecurity for Handling Pathogenic Viruses

“…(Cenciarelli et al, 2013;Das and Kataria, 2010;CDC, 2017 Pathogenic viruses of biosecurity concern include smallpox, Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, Machupo, Nipah, hantavirus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, eastern equine encephalitis, western equine encephalitis etc. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified bioterrorism agents into categories A, B and C based on their ease of dissemination or transmission, severity of potential impact on public health, panic and societal disruption and the availabity of public health response measures (Jansen et al, 2014;Cenciarelli et al, 2015;CDC, 2017). Viruses listed as bioterrorism agents by the US CDC are shown in Table 1.…”

“…Among the potential viruses suitable for bioweapons, Variola and Ebola viruses are the most likely candidates (Cenciarelli et al, 2015). Variola major, the causative agent of smallpox, is recorded as the most deadly virus in human history.…”

“…However, if this virus is intentionally used as bioweapon it could cause devastation through fatal disease. Ebola virus causes severe hemorrhagic fever, with a high casefatality rate and currently there is no fully-tested vaccine or approved therapy available (Cenciarelli et al, 2015).…”

“…Biosecurity risk assessment is needed to develop systems to limit undesirable events from occurring and to assure response preparedness to them (Cenciarelli et al, 2015). The results of the biosecurity risk assessment are used to determine the appropriate levels of controls to secure the pathogenic viruses, other materials and relevant sensitive information.…”

Vaccines against ‘the other’Ebolavirusspecies

“…In fact, this outbreak was the first ever instance of imported cases of Ebola virus as a result of airline travel 19,20 . In this situation it is highly probable that the illness would be initially misidentified, as many of the symptoms of Ebola virus disease are nonspecific, and would likely be attributed to another disease, (e.g.…”