Scary infectious diseases--for college assignment??

In my college health class, we are to find an infectious disease that scares the beejeezus out of us and research it. All of the ones I "know" are taken: mrsa, west nile, bird flu, hepatitis, STD's/HIV/AIDS, meningitiz, hpv.

Any other ideas?

How about plague - it still happens, including occasionally in the US (there are reservoirs of the germ in some animals out west).
How about cholera - there are still outbreaks of it frequently in the world.
Then there's malaria, Hanta virus, dengue fever, polio, not to mention Ebola - that one really scares the bejesus out of me, even though it's only been in Africa. There was an outbreak many years ago in Germany of a virus called Marburg virus, which if I'm remembering correctly turned out to be very similar to the Ebola virus. Weird, and then it just died out apparently.
Also Jakob-Kreutzfeld disease which is caused, not by a conventual germ, but by so-called prions - it's related to Mad Cow disease - how about that one - that's another one that's pretty scary.
Anyway, don't worry there're plenty left to choose from. You'll probably think of some more on your own. Good luck. Make an comment and let us know which one you pick.

The ebola virus.

why dont you do one on the black plague. That was scary stuff.