Military

DATE=9/21/01

TYPE=English Programs Feature

NUMBER=7-35319

TITLE=Bioterrorism Effects and Prevention Q&A With Dr. Zilinskas

BYLINE=Penelope Poulou

TELEPHONE=(202)619-2607

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=vicki swaney

CONTENT=

_

INTRO: The terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. have left many people worrying whether another attack with biological weapons this time could be coming. Dr. Raymond Zilinskas, an expert on Biological and Toxin Arms Control at the non-profit Monterey Institute of International Studies in California talks with VOA's Penelope Poulou about the possibility.

POULOU Q&A ZILINSKAS

Zilinskas: An airborne attack to spread pathogens over a target population using an aerosol cloud is technically a very difficult feat.

Poulou: Why is that?

Zilinskas: First of all, you have to get the right kind of pathogen. So, the most common pathogen talked about in this way is Bacillus anthracis, which is the bacterium that causes Anthrax. But, you just don't go and dig Anthrax out of the ground. You have to secure it in some way. You don't buy it; you don't get it from fellow microbiologists because nobody is really working on it. So, it's not so easy. For example, the Aum Shinrikyo sect in Japan: they were very well equipped. They had good scientists, they had a lot of money, they had laboratories and they tried to secure a Bacillus anthracis strain for use in their terrorist attack. But, it turned out when they attacked using the Baccilus anthracis, nothing happened. And one reason was that they secured the wrong strain. They secured a non virulent strain of Anthrax, and second, when they started spraying this solution containing the Anthrax, the protein in the solution clogged the nozzles of the sprayers, so nothing came out.

Poulou: And how about other forms of agents that may cause infectious diseases? How about smallpox? How about the agents that cause botulism?

Zilinskas: Smallpox is only stored, as far as we know, in two facilities throughout the world. One in Atlanta and one in Nova Sibirsk in Russia. Nobody is going to get to these two storage sites. The question that worries security analysts is that maybe there are samples of serum that are stored since the time that smallpox was fairly prevalent in the world. I'm talking about the early 1970s. Some security experts have hypothesized that for example, Iraq which had a big smallpox problem until about 1974-1975 that they have retained some of these serum samples that could contain smallpox virus, and that they could use this as a terrorist or biological weapon. We don't know if this is true, we just don't. So, what I'm saying about smallpox is that it is very unlikely that terrorists could get their hands on that.

Poulou: How about the agent that causes the pneumonic plague?

Zilinskas: That's called Yersinia pestis and yes, you can get it from animals that carry it for example in the American Southwest and you can find them in central Asia. The problem about Yersinia - the technical problem about Yersinia - is that it is rather difficult to work with. The organism dies very quickly after it's dispersed because it dries out almost immediately and drying out kills this organism.

Poulou: What should we anticipate?

Zilinskas: I would say that based on history, we worry about the conventional part first. But, we always keep in mind that the second possibility the biological option might be taken out by terrorists and we have to prepare for it.

Poulou: How prepared are we to face something like that?

Zilinskas: Well, we're much better prepared than we were two or three years ago. In most emergency departments, the doctors and nurses have a high index of suspicion. If, for example, a lot of people that otherwise are healthy we're talking about young and middle-aged people - would present themselves with flu-like symptoms, I think they would immediately contact their state health department and report them. The nice part, of course, is that if there is a high index of suspicion and if the health departments move very quickly then, if the organism is a bacterium, you can start antibiotic treatment right away. There are now large supplies of antibiotics that are stored in different parts of the country, again something that was not the case three, even two, years ago.

Poulou: Thank you very much, Dr. Zilinskas.

Zilinskas: You are welcome.

Lead Out: Dr. Raymond Zilinskas is a senior scientist with the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.