Terrorists could use Ebola virus to make `dirty bomb`: Expert

Zee Media Bureau

Melbourne: An anthropologist has warned that terror group such as al Qaeda could use flesh-eating Ebola virus to create a "dirty bomb" that might be used to explode cities in the UK. Dr Peter Walsh, a biological anthropologist from Cambridge University, told The Sun on Sunday: “More serious risk is that a group manages to attach the virus as a powder, then exploded it in a bomb in a highly populated public area.” Dr Walsh said that it was a threat that was taken very seriously. It said that only a handful of research labs worldwide have the Ebola virus and they are extremely well-protected. So it would be possible that terrorist groups could get samples of infected material direct from West Africa which is the home of the feared Boko Haram Islamic extremist group. The current outbreak has claimed more than 800 people in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia. Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. According to WHO, the virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. (With Agency Inputs)