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Communicable diseases can kill and can cause long-term disability. The microbes are dynamic, changeable, and more and more resilient to the weaponry humans use to combat them. They are responsible for more than 14 million deaths each year, mainly in developing countries. Acute respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, malaria and tuberculosis are the biggest infectious killers in the world and particularly in Africa. Besides mortality figures, they also determine a high burden in terms of disability and morbidity, affecting individuals, families and entire societies, causing great human suffering and major obstacles to economic development1. Public health officials once suggested that it might someday be possible to “close the book” on the study and treatment of infectious diseases, but despite considerable progress, communicable diseases continue to present significant challenges as new microbial threats emerge and reemerge2. The Ebola virus is one of these emergent threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]