Look out for the killer bug

As of Monday, the Ebola virus had made its debut in Kinshasa, Zaire's capital.

Since the start of the outbreak, health care officials have feared that if the virus were able to reach Kinshasa, it would use the city as a launching pad, spreading to the rest of the world via modern transport systems.

Ebola, which is 90 percent fatal, is spread through bodily fluids, but its relatively short incubation period and shockingly swift progression once fully developed will probably keep it from becoming The Bug some scientists are predicting will take a huge chunk of the world's human population in coming years, officials say.

But with the genetic adaptability of viruses- their ability to mutate - medical science is continuously unable to devise treatments for or immunization against viral illnesses. Eventually, however, The Bug will surface and, epidemiologists say, the Black Death will suddenly seem like a round of the common cold.

Modern civilization grew arrogant in the age of penicillin and the defeat of such killers as polio and the whooping cough.

Now, jet travel has made the furthest corners of the world accessible within the incubation period of viruses like Ebola. The world has witnessed the emergence of bacterial and viral strains that have developed resistance to man's cures. Suddenly, instead of nuclear warheads mounted on far-away missles, we fear the microscopic killers, bacteria and viruses, that have prayed on us since before we stood on two feet.

If we cannot now defeat viruses, we must take steps to check their spread. Early warning systems - observers in regions where disease outbreaks are likely - must be set in place to help contain infections like Ebola before they can reach unaffected areas.

Moreover, the research and treatment of viruses should take the place of bomb building and the arts of destruction as a national priority under the heading of "defense." America needs a new industry. Mother nature has obliged. She has sent since time immemorial wave after wave of killer microbes.

Human beings react amazingly well to the presentation of an enemy against whom all can direct aggressive energy, and upon whom all can project their Jungian shadow. The problem is that somebody - usually some individual or group just different enough to distinguish them as an "other" - has to pay the bill for this common-enemy cohesion.

With the killer bug this isn't a problem. Except for the bug, of course. And like the commercial says, "They're germs. They deserve to die."