New World hemorrhagic fevers are emerging infectious diseases found in South America that can cause terrible, Ebola-like symptoms. Current treatments are expensive and only partially effective. Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute - Discipline: Epidemiology

"New World hemorrhagic fevers are nasty, serious, and often fatal diseases," says Stephen C. Harrison, an HHMI investigator at Harvard Medical School and senior author of the report, published March 7, 2010, in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. "The need for new interventions is high."
"The outbreaks of New World hemorrhagic fever tend to be brief and brutal, with mortality rates of 20 to 30 percent," says Jonathan Abraham, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University and first author of the paper. "These viruses aren't a huge public health issue yet, but you could say the New World hemorrhagic fevers are an emerging disease threat."