Monkeypox Could Be Used as Bioweapon

stevequayle.com & UPI ^ | June 9, 2002 | Steve Mitchell, UPI Medical Correspondent

[mukraker]

The Russians worked with monkeypox virus, a close cousin to smallpox, in their bioweapons program and it is possible terrorists could use it in a biological attack against the United States, scientists and former United Nations weapons inspectors told United Press International.

Although some biological weapons experts are concerned with the possibility of terrorists using another smallpox-related virus called camelpox, which Iraq has admitted to researching, Mark Buller, a biologist at Saint Louis University who conducts research on smallpox vaccines, said he is more concerned about monkeypox.

Buller's concern stems from the fact that monkeypox, unlike camelpox, causes mortality in humans and the incidence of human infection is on the rise in central and western Africa.

In addition, the Russian biowarfare experts are known to have worked with the virus in the Soviet Union's biological weapons program.

The Soviets decided they did not want to work with smallpox by the late 1980's "and there was significant discussion of the possible use of monkeypox as a biological weapon instead of smallpox," Ken Alibek, who was former deputy chief of the Soviet biological weapons program and now resides in the U.S., told UPI.

Monkeypox, which causes symptoms similar to smallpox, can be fatal, but only in the minority of cases, said James LeDuc, director of the division of viral and rickettsial diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He said he is "not aware of any cases outside" Africa.

The World Health Organization attributes the increase in monkeypox cases in Africa to the fact that smallpox vaccines, which can protect against monkeypox, are no longer administered.

LeDuc said it is uncertain whether the disease is on the increase, but he noted there appears to have been an outbreak of the disease in Africa about 6 months ago.

The "real fear is that (monkeypox) might be engineered as a bioweapon," said Jonathan Tucker, a former weapons inspector for the United Nations Special Commission who is now with the think tank Monterey Institute in Washington.

Monkeypox is not as contagious as smallpox, but whether it could be or has been modified to be more virulent is unknown. The Soviets were not concerned with contagiousness, Alibek said, because they planned to produce "tons and tons" of the virus -- enough to infect "hundred of thousands of people or even more."

Tucker noted the smallpox vaccine will protect against both monkeypox and camelpox, but Americans do not have access to this vaccine. The CDC, which holds a stockpile of the smallpox vaccine, is currently reconsidering its vaccination strategy and whether to vaccinate everyone or wait until there is an outbreak and try to vaccinate only those exposed.

There are concerns that Russia's smallpox may have been leaked to terrorists, and whether something similar happened with monkeypox is uncertain. Another former U.N. weapons inspector, who requested anonymity, told UPI "There's no confirmation that (monkeypox) leaked out, but the potential exists."

Alibek said he had no idea whether monkeypox had ever been leaked out of the Soviet program. But he noted that from the 1970s until the 1990s, "it was not a problem to get any of the orthopox viruses (smallpox, camelpox and monkeypox)," and many countries had access to them if they wanted them.

Iraq is one of the rogue states that may have obtained access to monkeypox. "We've never ever gotten to the bottom of their involvement with camelpox, whether they were really trying to weaponize it or it was a façade for working with smallpox or monkeypox," said the former U.N. inspector, who was a member of the team that went into Iraq.

There is a lot of suspicion that Iraq had access to smallpox, but "there's no such indirect evidence for monkeypox," the inspector said. Asked if monkeypox was less of a concern than smallpox, the inspector replied, "I wouldn't say it's of less concern ... The fact that we haven't come across evidence from the United Nations doesn't mean it's not there."

No U.N. weapons inspectors have been in Iraq since 1998, so unless the government acknowledges working with a particular biological agent it is difficult to know for certain whether they ever worked with it. No one has any idea what types of agents they have worked with in the past three years, the inspector said.

Iraq is "likely to work with any nasty that comes along" and the government has shown an interest "in all the orthopox viruses," so "it's a strong possibility that they were" working with monkeypox, the inspector said.

The good news is that monkeypox does not appear to be transmissible from person to person and the smallpox vaccine protects against it. Asked whether monkeypox could be modified so that the vaccine is not effective against it, the former weapons inspector said, "I would say that verges on the impossible."

Alibek noted, "There was no such work in getting it resistant to vaccine. I cannot say anything for sure about what they are doing now." Alibek said he left the program more than 10 years ago.

"Making it elusive to the vaccine would be a challenge," CDC's LeDuc said. "The position that we've always held is that it would be very difficult to overcome the vaccine by genetic engineering."

However, Alibek added, "Existent vaccines are not 100 percent effective" against smallpox. They only offer approximately 70 percent protection. "Against monkeypox, the protection could be even lower," he said. "So even if everybody is vaccinated against smallpox, it doesn't mean everybody is protected."

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=07062002-064019-1942r

[Trust but Verify]

I asked you a question. You didn't answer. The facts you post are only accurate when you are comparing apples with apples. Comparing the state of the health and health care of Africans vs Americans islike comparing the skills of a Little League pitcher vs A MLB pitcher. That's what I'm pointing out, as have others.

[Trust but Verify]

If they are terrorized at the thought of having a couple of pox marks, they are also afraid of a lot of other things like breaking a nail or getting a run in their nylons.

[steve86]

You are proving my point.

[Lazamataz]

ya, but only against monkeys right?

France, the original home of cheese-eating surrender-monkeys, is reportedly terrified.

[Lazamataz]

I have seen two victims of Brown Recluse spider bites in my life.

The wounds are about 1 1/2 inch across and about 1 inch deep of necrotized flesh. The resulting scar is incredible.

[TexConfederate1861]

I wonder if it only works on "Surrender Monkeys" (the French :))?

[aristeides]

U.S. Monkeypox Cases Rise to 48 .

[tracer]

sci-fi bump....

[FairOpinion]

I stated it was about an outbreak in Congo, I stated the year, I quoted the exact quote from the article, with the excat numbers, I gave the link. What more do you want?

If you want to point out that yes, indeed medical care is better in the US and the same mortality rates may not apply for that reason, that's fine.

But to accuse me of "misleading posts", when I go out of my way to be very precise is highly irritating, it indicates that you like to run around accusing people of things that you are doing. All your posts on this subject are critical of others posts and information without any contribution of any facts or genuine information of your own. You accuse others of doing what you are doing.

[aristeides]

Four animals in Pa. show no signs of monkeypox virus .

[aristeides]

Monkeypox shuts down LP Hospital ER for a time Friday.

[FairOpinion]

Gee, now it's 48.

I also read somewhere that there were some early cases, to which the CDC was not alerted, because at the time they didn't realize what it was.

Makes you wonder how many of these are human to human transmissions, and with the latency period of 7-10 days, how many cases will we see in a week?

[aristeides]

Two Cases Of Monkeypox Confirmed In Northeast Indiana.

[FairOpinion]

And did you see:

"Toddler dies in Hong Kong of anthrax"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/926521/posts

No terrorism is suspected, naturally.
But they have no idea how he got it, rather they have theories, but no link to anything specific.

[Trust but Verify]

If your point is that there are a lot of Americans whose lives are so idyllic that the miniscule threat of being scarred by a few pock marks that monkeypox makes a good terror weapon then I agree with the part about the vacuous Americans. If terrorists wanted to scare women and cause I-don't-know-what economic harm, they'd do a lot more damage by bombing an Estee Lauder factory.

[Trust but Verify]

Yeah, makes you wonder. How many deaths do you think we'll have?

[FairOpinion]

Maybe it will die out after a while, as it did in Congo. The reason I and others keep quoting Congo, is that seems to be the only place they had relatively recent: 90-s, experience with an outbreak of monkey pox.

On the other hand, if it gets into the wildlife population, it will spread quickly. Just look at how quickly the West Nile virus spread from one location.

[stlnative]

The main article that started this thread is out of date. It says there are no known cases of it outside of Africa. This is BS as we have at least 30 cases in the USA right now. Every freaken report on Monkeypox has been based on cases in Africa, now that we have it here and people are not dropping off like flies due to it and they are not grossly scarred does this not tell you something? Does it not make you think that this stuff is really not as bad as it seems it is in Africa since it is now here and has been here now for about 1 month? People need to understand there is very little healthcare in Africa, especially in small African villages where the mortality rate in Africa among people who have not been vaccinated is between one and 10 percent of infected cases.

Look at that picture of that 3 year old... She was bitten by a prairie dog that was carrying monkeypox, not only was she bitten she handled the creature when it's eyes were crusted shut. Is she covered in monkeypox sores or scars?

Sorry I just will not buy into the paranoia that some people are buying into over monkeypox, until I see that AMERICAN people are truly dying from it, requiring long hospital stays and are grossly scarred worse than chickenpox from having monkeypox.

Reading the logical posts on FR has helped me not be paranoid over this or SARS. Not to mention reading up on this stuff. If I was someone who hated america and americans I would surely see that trying to infect americans with Monkeypox is probably just a waste of time, but then coming to numerous posts that show people are truly worried about it might just show any terrorist he can scare people and probably hurt our economy, but he will now know he not going to kill many people in our great land known as the USA due to out advanced medical care system.

People need to stop living in fear of possible bio-attacks, sure people should stay guarded, but do not let them sense the fear as fear alone lets them know they are winning.

To be honest I am kinda glad we now have seen monkeypox here, as all these years we have been reading how it kills people in Africa, but we had no proof of what it would do if came to America until now. I think these american cases of Monkeypox will prove that we can treat it and control it, even in people who have never been vacinated for any type of pox.

[Trust but Verify]

Nice post. It's good to see that not everyone is hyperventilating over this.

[stlnative]

Get use to the count going up. There was at least 40 to 50 Prairie Dogs that were exposed to the sick Gambian Rat, I also understand it was more than one Gambian Rat that was export (our smuggled in), they are still tracking them. These prairie dogs and gambian rats have been spread out all over the USA (and probably some went to Japan or other countries) Now think about how many people have these prairie dog or gambian rats that MAY be infected and think about all the people who have possible been exposed to them.

The count is going to go high... but people need to understand people are being treated and are getting well. No american human has died yet and probably won't.

Yes all of this sucks, but people need to stay calm and stay the hell away from exotic animals.