NurseRatchet
11-19-02, 13:39
Experts Weigh Smallpox Threat from Iraq
Tue November 19, 2002 11:50 AM ET
By Alan Elsner
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -
(exerpts)
...Ronald Atlas, president of the American Society for Microbiology, told the conference [on biosecurity] organized by Harvard University and the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences...
A VIRUS THAT CIRCUMVENTS THE VACCINE?
Atlas cited one recent experiment in Australia aimed at controlling the mouse population. Researchers inserted a gene that makes interleukin 4 into the mousepox virus, a relative of smallpox that is harmless to humans. Instead of making mice infertile, the engineered virus became far more deadly than the natural strain, killing mice that had been vaccinated against mousepox.
"The fear is that if you put interleukin 4 into human smallpox, you would create a virus that circumvents the vaccine," he said.
Iraq is known to have experimented with camel pox in the 1980s, leading some Western experts to suspect it was trying to adapt yet another variant of the disease for use against humans.
Atlas said UN inspectors needed to urgently investigate whether Iraq had done any research with interleukin 4. He said US scientists at a university in Louisiana were expected to gain approval soon for an experiment to see if the gene worked with monkey pox in the same way as it did with mousepox.
"There is no question that biotechnology can contribute to the threat of bioterrorism," he said.
Link to Reuters article (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=1768203)
Tue November 19, 2002 11:50 AM ET
By Alan Elsner
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -
(exerpts)
...Ronald Atlas, president of the American Society for Microbiology, told the conference [on biosecurity] organized by Harvard University and the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences...
A VIRUS THAT CIRCUMVENTS THE VACCINE?
Atlas cited one recent experiment in Australia aimed at controlling the mouse population. Researchers inserted a gene that makes interleukin 4 into the mousepox virus, a relative of smallpox that is harmless to humans. Instead of making mice infertile, the engineered virus became far more deadly than the natural strain, killing mice that had been vaccinated against mousepox.
"The fear is that if you put interleukin 4 into human smallpox, you would create a virus that circumvents the vaccine," he said.
Iraq is known to have experimented with camel pox in the 1980s, leading some Western experts to suspect it was trying to adapt yet another variant of the disease for use against humans.
Atlas said UN inspectors needed to urgently investigate whether Iraq had done any research with interleukin 4. He said US scientists at a university in Louisiana were expected to gain approval soon for an experiment to see if the gene worked with monkey pox in the same way as it did with mousepox.
"There is no question that biotechnology can contribute to the threat of bioterrorism," he said.
Link to Reuters article (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=1768203)