Bioterror threat is growing, say medics

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Bioterror threat is growing, say medics

By Severin Carrell

24 October 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=57547

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The world faces a growing risk that terrorists will use new biological

weapons created by genetic engineering, the British Medical Association will

warn this week.

 

Advances in research make it more likely that virulent and lethal forms of

influenza and laboratory-enhanced strains of smallpox could be used as

weapons, the BMA claims.

 

The warnings are spelt out in a report on the threat posed by biological

warfare, released tomorrow by the BMA. The association, which represents

128,000 GPs and medics, will call for international action to curb the

threat posed by these weapons.

 

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, said: " We have

a small window of opportunity to make the world safer. The fact is that

window is getting smaller. "

 

The report lists a series of recent experiments creating lethal new viruses

and bugs. The BMA will argue there are grounds for using biowarfare tests to

find defences against threats from terrorist and rogue states. But it warns

there are no international treaties to control these tests.

 

It is understood the BMA report will focus on recent tests including:

 

* Russian admissions that they created genetically enhanced anthrax.

 

* The creation by US scientists of a new type of smallpox - which is

eradicated worldwide by a global vaccination programme - from the vaccine

itself. This new bug, called SPICE, is 100 times more potent than the

original.

 

* A new generation of weapons designed to attack the human nervous system or

immune system with " catastrophic effects " , perhaps using genetically

modified natural toxins.

24 October 2004 15:03