Will Terrorists Bring Smallpox To New York Aboard Airplanes?

The most likely way Osama bin Ladens terrorists could spread smallpox would be by sending suicide squads infected with the virus into metropolitan areas, said Dr. Dorin Stoica, director of infectious diseases at Jamaica Medical Center. He was skeptical, however, about terrorists easily obtaining the deadly germs.
"There is no other really effective technique for creating a biological weapon with the deadly germs," he said. "There are only two caches of the smallpox virus known to be in existence, one locked in a safe at the Center of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and a second in a lab in Moscow. We must assure that both supplies of the highly contagious substance are guarded against theft by terrorists."
Stoica said there were reports from a former Russian aide involved in the countrys bio-terrorism group that Russia had added to its smallpox supplies in the 1980s.
"We don’t know how accurate this defectors account is," he said.
Stoica said that smallpox has an incubation period of seven to 17 days. Symptoms are similar to the flu. Victims run a fever, suffer backaches, develop a rash and red lesions similar to chickenpox. The victims become infectious after the incubation period is completed.
Meanwhile, the federal government is negotiating with the pharmaceutical industry to turn out enough smallpox vaccine to protect every man, woman and child in the country. It is a move to head off high mortality if an outbreak occurs. The disease cant be prevented, and there is no treatment. The government is planning to buy 300 million doses of the vaccine and scientists acknowledge there are significant side effects.
Secretary of Health & Human Services Tommy Thompson said that the disease kills one-third of all people infected with it.
Stoica said that Jamaica Hospital is in the front line in the planning of the response to bio-terrorism. He said that "were as prepared as possible because government health officials realize that the Hospital is the closest one in the city to Kennedy Airport."
"We receive regular updates from the CDC and the state and city health departments. We are on a higher alert than other hospitals," Stoica added.
Stoica also said that Jamaica has developed a task force on bio-terrorism and is teaching its medical staff about the steps the Hospital must take to protect against anthrax and smallpox.
Some medical authorities question Americas current frenzy over anthrax and biological warfare. They decry the attention given to paralyzed mailrooms, talk-show discussions, the hoarding of antibiotics and the shutdown on Capitol Hill. These physicians worry about the start of the flu season, which claims around 20,000 Americans. If it is one of those years, like 1975 or 1968, when we experience an influenza pandemic, that number may hit 50,000.
Flu traditionally kills the very old and the very young. The disease kills viciously, with victims racked by raging fevers, infections, headaches, chills and sweats. Many infectious disease specialists say we should worry more about flu than anthrax or smallpox.