From Edward McSweegan
You report that “an engineered mouse virus leaves us one step away from the
ultimate bioweapon”
(13 January, p 4).
So putting the interleukin 4 (IL-4) gene
into mousepox virus produced a surprisingly virulent virus. Putting IL-4 into
human smallpox seems like overkill, as it is already one of the most contagious
and virulent viruses. Few people are likely to try this stunt because smallpox
is tricky stuff to handle and hard to find. The US and Russia now have the only
known stocks.
Not so its African cousin, monkeypox. As a terrorist tool, monkeypox has some
advantages over smallpox. It is available in the wild and from outbreaks in West
Africa. It is less contagious and therefore easier to handle. Until now most
public health officials have dismissed its worth as a bioweapon because its
virulence and person-to-person transmission rates are low compared with
smallpox. Perhaps a little genetic engineering could do for monkeypox what it
did for mousepox.
“We wanted to warn the general population that this potentially dangerous
technology is available,” said one of the creators of the IL-4 mousepox virus.
Well, it is and we’ve been warned.
Crofton, Maryland
