The author proposes expanding U.S. cooperative threat reduction programs to address the threat from the Soviet Union's system to defeat bubonic plagure.

British scientists have made a crucial breakthrough in the war on terrorism by developing a vaccine to counter bubonic plague, the bacteria that caused the Black Death.

Scientists have successfully immunised mice against the deadly ebola virus which has killed thousands in Africa.

The author interviews epidemiologists and bioterrorism experts to assess the risks of a new pandemic.

The United States and the rest of the world need to do a lot more to protect people against microbes like the one causing a mysterious and deadly form of pneumonia, as well as more traditional foes like influenza and tuberculosis, according to a panel of experts from the U.S. Institute of Medicine.

By redesigning the shell of Ebola, Purdue University researchers have transformed the feared virus into a benevolent workhorse for gene therapy ? and as one of the first gene bearers that can be inhaled rather than injected, it might prove valuable in the fight against lung disease.

Experts warn that the technique used to create the first synthetic polio virus, revealed last week, could be also used to recreate Ebola or the 1918 flu strain that killed up to 40 million people.

Experts from the UK are helping African countries to develop the world's first early warning system to prevent malaria epidemics.

The U.S. government is joining forces with a tiny Dutch biotechnology company on Thursday to develop a vaccine against Ebola, the virus that bleeds people to death and which could be a powerful weapon in bioterrorism.

Proposals made by the US government in recent years to intensify medical and public health preparedness for bioterrorism have received additional impetus from anthrax attacks following September 11, 2001. The threat has been exaggerated to support military and law enforcement agendas; resources have been diverted from essential public health priorities; ineffective or dangerous measures have been used; and public health programs have been inappropriately commingled with security programs.