Perhaps he is confused by claims by the US government that they own the ebola virus.
Please see US Patent # CA 2741523 A1
from the patent on file:
U.S. Government claims exclusive ownership over its “invention” of Ebola
The “SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION” section of the patent document also clearly claims that the U.S. government is claiming “ownership” over all Ebola viruses that share as little as 70% similarity with the Ebola it “invented”:
...invention relates to the isolated EboBun virus that morphologically and phylogenetically relates to known members filoviridae... In another aspect, the invention provides an isolated hEbola EboBun virus comprising a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of: a) a nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1; b) a nucleotide sequence that hybridizes to the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1 under stringent conditions; and c) a nucleotide sequence that has at least 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, or 99% identity to the SEQ ID NO
I can see where a 3rd world country with an ebola outbreak would have concerns about the US wanting to “help”.
I guess, the professor didn’t read the patent application. For instance: [0019] In other aspects, the invention relates to the use of the isolated hEbola virus for diagnostic and therapeutic methods based on EbBun, EboIC, or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, the invention provides a method of detecting in a biological sample an antibody immunospecific for the genus of West Afrin Ebola Species constituting hEbola EbBun and EboIC
He also must of missed the application date in 2008 or final issuing date in 2010. There is money in finding treatments and they are protecting their research.