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POPSLifting the Lid on America's Biowarfare Research Reporting guidelines are so lax that dangerous pathogens such as hantavirus, SARS and dengue fever "are not on the select agent list" nor are there requirements "that the theft, loss or release of these agents ... be reported to Federal officials." More recently, Global Security Newswire reported in June that an inventory at USAMRIID at Fort Detrick, Md., "found nearly 10,000 more vials of potentially lethal pathogens than were known to be stored at the site." The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine was so-alarmed by the prospect that in 2003 they commented, "the possibility for genetic engineering and aerosol transmission suggests an enormous potential for bioterrorism." Unsaid, of course, was the gravest threat posed by such dark research may be state terrorism. Any one of these pathogens should they escape or made to "disappear," could be transformed into a doomsday weapon.
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POPSHantavirus 'plague' killed Grand Canyon Biologist Plague is an emotive word, but the disease hantavirus is endemic to the South West U.S.A. It can be carried and transmitted by wild animals, rats and fleas, and can also be transmitted by inhaling droplets expelled by humans when coughing or sneezing. Fatal cases are said to be rare, and it can be treated with antibiotics, but up to 50% of cases can be fatal if pneumonia develops. While Arizona officials said the disease was on the rise, the Center for Disease Control said the same was not true nationally.
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