ISIS may already be thinking of using Ebola as a low-tech weapon of bio-terror, says a national security expert, who notes that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria andterror groups like it wouldnt even have to weaponize the virus to attempt to wreak strategic global infection.

Such groups could simply use human carriers to intentionally infect themselves in West Africa, then disseminate the deadly virus via the worlds air transportation system. Or so says Capt. Al Shimkus, Ret., a Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.

Ebola virus virion. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And with a significant portion of West Africa now in an open epidemic, it arguably wouldnt be difficult for a terrorist group to simply waltz in and make off with some infected bodily fluids for use at a later time elsewhere.

They wouldnt even have to isolate it, says Shimkus, who teaches a course in chemical and biological warfare. He says that if ISIS wanted to send half a dozen of its operatives into an Ebola outbreak region and intentionally expose themselves to the virus, they very well could. The idea is then once they had intentionally infected themselves, they would try to interact with as many people in their target city or country of choice.

The average fatality rate from Ebola, classified as a hemorrhagic fever, is 50 percent; but without medical treatment, that figure can range as high as 90 percent, reports the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO also notes that although there are two potential vaccines undergoing evaluation, at present none are licensed.

The virus was first documented in humans in 1976 during two simultaneous outbreaks, one in Sudan and the other in the Congo, in a village near the Ebola River. The WHO reports that a type of fruit bat is thought to act as the virus natural host.

The virus apparently spreads into the human population via direct contact with infected animals ranging from chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines; as well as the fruit bat itself be they found ill or dead in the rain forest. According to the WHO, Ebola can then be spread via contact with the infecteds bodily fluids; even bedding and clothing contaminated with such fluids.

The idea of using human carriers to intentionally spread deadly pathogens has been around for centuries. As Shimkus points out, in the Middle Ages, adversaries threw infected corpses over their enemys city walls in order to spread the deadly Bubonic Plague.

If ISIS or another terrorist actor were to use Ebola in a similar manner today, Shimkus says the possibility of identifying those infected as they enter and leave the country is excellent but not 100 percent.

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Ebola As ISIS Bio-Weapon?