ISLAMIC State members could be planning to infect themselves with Ebola and travelling to the West, waging bio-terror as “suicide bombs”, according to a military expert.

Captain Al Shimkus, Ret., a Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, said terrorist groups like IS could easily use human carriers to widely disseminate the deadly virus via the world’s air transportation system.

He said the strategy would be a low-tech weapon of bioterror.

“The individual exposed to the Ebola virus would be the carrier,” Shimkus told Forbes.

“In the context of terrorist activity, it doesn’t take much sophistication to go to that next step to use a human being as a carrier.”

He said with the virus overwhelming parts of West Africa — and more than 3800 dead within a few months — it wouldn’t be difficult for a terrorist group to run off with some infected bodily fluids for use elsewhere at another time.

Shimkus, who teaches biological warfare, said infected jihadists would try to interact with as many people in their target city or country.

However he added that if terrorists did try to spread the disease in countries like the US, it wouldn’t spread exponentially because advanced health care systems are equipped to contain the virus.

Ebola can be spread via contact with the infected’s bodily fluids, including bedding and clothing “contaminated” with such fluids. According to the World Health Organisation, the average fatality rate from Ebola, classified as a haemorrhagic fever, is 50 per cent.

The rate could rise to 90 per cent without medical treatment.

The WHO also notes that although there are two potential experimental vaccines being evaluated, none are licensed.