NOVA Online | Bioterror | NOVA News Minutes: Smallpox Superbug?

NOVA News Minutes
Smallpox Superbug?
(running time 01:29)

Transcript
August 29, 2003

NARRATOR: In the wake of the report that some 50 percent of the population is probably still immune to smallpox, there are still concerns.

MARK SLIFKA (Oregon Health & Sciences University): There's been several conspiracy theories such as, what if the smallpox virus was mutated to become more virulent? Would the smallpox vaccine still work?

NARRATOR: As shown on PBS's NOVA, scientists in the former Soviet Union used genetic engineering to create mixtures of diseases, or "super bugs." Smallpox was one of the viruses they worked with, but experts disagree over how successful they were in modifying it. But ultimately Slifka thinks the smallpox vaccine would stand up to a modified version of the bug.

MARK SLIFKA (Oregon Health & Sciences University): It's impossible to mutate all of the different parts of the virus that your immune system recognizes. Some part of the virus would have to be maintained, and the smallpox vaccine would still be able to I.D. those and induce protective immunity.

NARRATOR: Beyond that, he says would-be bioterrorists might even find that they've made a virus too strong for their purposes.

MARK SLIFKA (Oregon Health & Sciences University): Basically, a supervirus that would kill too rapidly, that would be counterintuitive for an epidemic. If the virus kills you rapidly then it would reduce the spread. Also people would get sick more rapidly and would be more readily I.D.'d by the healthcare professionals.

NARRATOR: That's if they've been trained to recognize it. Thanks to the vaccine, there hasn't been a case of smallpox anywhere on Earth for 25 years. I'm Brad Kloza.

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