In 1980, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the natural incidence of smallpox had been eradicated. This is often cited as a testament to the power of modern medicine and as a triumph of the human spirit. However, there is also a dark side to the human spirit and this has ensured that the threat of smallpox has not vanished but remains alive and sick in the form of biological weapons.
Smallpox is an acute, highly contagious disease caused by a pox virus, the deadliest strain of which is called Variola major. Smallpox was a deadly scourge throughout most of the history of civilisation. The smallpox vaccine was the earliest immunisation procedure to be widely used. By the end of the 18th century, when effective vaccines first became widely available, smallpox had crippled, disfigured or killed about one tenth of all humanity.
Viruses are simple biological organisms consisting merely of a fragment of nucleic acid enclosed in a protein coat. Isolated viruses are inert but spring to life when they come in contact with their host victim. The nucleic acid enters the host cell, takes over the metabolic machinery and makes hundreds of copies of itself.
The virus usually enters the body through the nose and mouth and then gets into the blood and internal organs. After a 12-day incubation period, a severe fever begins, accompanied by stomach-ache and vomiting. Three or four days later a rash appears, characteristically on the face, palms and soles of the feet. The rash forms pustular pimples and the pimples eventfully form scabs. Although few agents can rival the virus for contagion and ability to cause suffering, smallpox is not particularly deadly. Even the deadliest strain has a mortality rate of about 30 per cent.
Who began a worldwide vaccination campaign against smallpox in 1967. At the time between 10 and 15 million cases of the disease occurred annually, causing more than two million deaths. In 1980, following two years in which no cases were reported, WHO announced the disappearance of the disease.
At that stage samples of the smallpox virus were held in various laboratories around the world. In order to eliminate the possibility that the virus might somehow cause another outbreak, these laboratories agreed either to hand over their stocks of the virus to WHO or to destroy them. WHO, in turn, divided its reference stock of the virus between the Soviet Union and the United States. The idea was that the virus stocks would be used for a few years to carry out research and then they would be destroyed. The smallpox virus was to be the first biological organism deliberately driven into extinction.
However, some scientists voiced misgivings. They argued that the virus should be held indefinitely to allow extensive research into the mechanisms this virus uses to get around the immune defences of the human body. Such an understanding would allow medical scientists to defeat other disease-causing organisms that operate in a similar manner.
It should also allow a selective disabling of the immune system during organ transplantation rather than shutting it down totally as happens at present, thereby leaving patients naturally defenceless against infection. Many other scientists argued that the benefits of eliminating the viral stocks greatly outweighed any advantages that might flow from holding on to them.
Whatever about the wisdom of maintaining stocks of the virus in order to study them, the motivation was to generate knowledge for good ends. However, in the May/June 1998 edition of The Sciences, Wendy Orent outlined harrowing details of charges that smallpox virus had been developed as a biological weapon, particularly in Russia. Although biological weapons have only recently been developed into tools capable of causing widespread havoc, they are probably as old as warfare itself. In ages past, opportunities were limited, but stratagems such as poisoning the enemy's wells were common. Smallpox was also used as a biological weapon, e.g. during the French and Indian War the British intentionally gave smallpox-infected blankets to enemy tribes.
Biological weapons are now officially outlawed on the international stage. The 1972 biological and toxic weapons convention was ratified by 140 countries, including America and Russia. However, it is widely believed biological weapons are being secretly developed in several countries. A number of recent high-ranking Russian defectors to the West have claimed Russia has stockpiled smallpox virus for use as a biological weapon and has also genetically engineered more virulent strains of the virus for the same purpose. Some experts also claim that other countries, including China, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Korea, Libya, Syria and India, have secured smallpox from Russian biologists.
Smallpox is a "good" biological weapon because it is much more hardy and infectious than most viruses. Compared with anthrax, for example, which usually kills its victims, the smallpox victims usually survive and the disease is amenable to medical treatment. An outbreak of smallpox would terrorise and incapacitate the civilian population and completely paralyse a country's medical system.
We have the scientific capacity to eradicate smallpox, but unfortunately it appears that we do not have the moral capacity to do so. WHO has scheduled June 30th, 1999, as the date on which remaining stocks of the virus held in Russia and in the United State will be destroyed. Of course, it is all too easy to posture publicly while privately pursuing secret agendas. Nevertheless, it seems worthwhile to go ahead with the June 30th gesture, if only to exert moral pressure on other countries who hold stocks of the virus. And finally, isn't it high time to introduce a rudimentary code of ethics for scientists that would, inter alia, formally put the development of new weapons of mass destruction beyond the pale of decent professional behaviour?
William Reville is a senior lecturer in biochemistry and director of microscopy at UCC.