Ebola

[Steve Walker]

Adaptation in humans would be likely to make it less lethal and more easily transmissible. So there is a little balance there. I think the big fear would be something highly transmissible out of the gate. Mind you, it doesn't take a high case fatality rate to be terrifying - the 1918 flu only had a low single digit CFR but is estimated to have infected a third of the population. Something that "only" killed ten or twenty percent of victims would be apocalyptic with influenza-like transmissibility and haemorrhagic fever horror.

[snakey1]

Adaptation in humans would be likely to make it less lethal and more easily transmissible. So there is a little balance there. I think the big fear would be something highly transmissible out of the gate. Mind you, it doesn't take a high case fatality rate to be terrifying - the 1918 flu only had a low single digit CFR but is estimated to have infected a third of the population. Something that "only" killed ten or twenty percent of victims would be apocalyptic with influenza-like transmissibility and haemorrhagic fever horror.

Variola major could be pretty much what you describe, Good job we got rid of it, pity the Russians weaponised it.

[Ken L]

Ebola also has potential as a bioweapon.

Such a scenario was covered in the 1996 Tom Clancy novel "Executive Orders".

I can think of several ways that it could be sourced and employed with minimal technical skill but I'm certainly not going to post details here.

[chesters1]

No need to ,i am sure at this very moment acolyte's of certain faiths are only to happy to get infected then with a one way ticket to a destination happy pass it on to as many as they can.

Borders are left open probably because the government are happy for it to happen?

Rastus odinga odinga IS the weapon! And he wont show up on xrays!

Edited August 22, 2018 by chesters1

[snakey1]

Ebola also has potential as a bioweapon.

Such a scenario was covered in the 1996 Tom Clancy novel "Executive Orders".

I can think of several ways that it could be sourced and employed with minimal technical skill but I'm certainly not going to post details here.

Already been tried by the Aum Shinrikyo, they sent a team to Africa but failed to obtain any cultures of the virus

[Steve Walker]

Variola major could be pretty much what you describe, Good job we got rid of it, pity the Russians weaponised it.

 

Smallpox is pretty terrifying, yes.

[Steve Walker]

Ebola also has potential as a bioweapon.

Such a scenario was covered in the 1996 Tom Clancy novel "Executive Orders".

I can think of several ways that it could be sourced and employed with minimal technical skill but I'm certainly not going to post details here.

Dr Filippa Lentzos, a senior research fellow at King’s College London and an expert on bioterrorism, said terrorists looking to use the virus as a weapon would encounter problems. “It doesn’t spread quickly at all,” she said. “Terrorists are usually after a bang and Ebola isn’t going to give you that.”

 

On average, a person infected with Ebola will infect two more people. In a developed country such as the UK transmission would be even more limited.

 

“People with Ebola are infectious only when they show symptoms,” Lentzos said. “Could terrorists go to west Africa, get infected, then come back and sit on the tube? Sure, but they’re not likely to be functional for very long.

I would be more concerned about someone getting infected, waiting until they are symptomatic, getting into a public place and then doing their bang.

 

Aum Shinrikyo were not, if I remember rightly, into martyrdom. It's easy to culture if you have volunteers who don't mind dying. And while it may be hard to culture in vitro, it's fairly robust so you wouldn't need to transport it in culture or in a host.

[Phone]

All,

 

There are all sorts of lip licking possibilities. A regular cafeteria of choices.

 

The US seems to have an interest in the colonization of (family Cryptosporidiidae) with a infective dose of a single cell.

 

Phone

[Ken L]

I would be more concerned about someone getting infected, waiting until they are symptomatic, getting into a public place and then doing their bang.

Of course, you'd need a way to carry the explosives undetected - preferably one that turns the jihadi into pink mist in the most effective way possible. Unfortunately, those clever devils seem to have found a way to manage it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMB_p2gc4RY

Edited August 23, 2018 by Ken L

[Ken L]

From 44 to 55 deaths in four days!....

Given that this outbreak was only identified on the 1st of August and there were only 78 identified cased by 17th of August, this is looking to be a very dangerous strain.

Setting any jollity aside for a moment, only two more days have passed and the death toll has risen to 61!

With 103 suspected cases in total, that's a scary high mortality rate - although it will likely drop when help arrives and supportive care becomes possible.