The project was in development hell ever since the early 1990's when it was announced by 20th Century Fox as a feature film to be directed by Ridley Scott, starring Robert Redford and Jodie Foster. But due to script problems and the release of the similar-themed film Virus letale (1995) around that time, the project was shut down. The studio and Scott are still involved with the miniseries but Scott is only producing instead of directing it.
A Biosafety Level 4 agent is one which has no cure or treatment.
Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever, which causes a person to bleed out of every orifice of the body. It is named after the Ebola River in Zaire, where the virus was first detected. A less-lethal type of hemorrhagic fever is Lassa fever.
National Geographic's 2019 Documentary "Going Viral" features the actual interviews of those that were involved, as opposed to those seen on this show.
In The Hot Zone book, the original sample of the Ebola virus was sent to Ft. Detrick In Frederick, MD, not Washington DC. However, it was discovered in a monkey house in Reston, VA.