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May 24, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Fever Over Camelpox as Bioweapon"

New Scientist (www.newscientist.com) (04/17/02); Coghlan, Andy; Mackenzie, Debora

Geoffrey Smith of Imperial College in London has sequenced a camelpox virus strain and asserts that the changes necessary to produce a virus similar to smallpox that could infect people are small, which heightens fears that Iraq is using camelpox as part of its biological weapons program.  Camelpox and smallpox are both members of the orthopox family, which means camelpox probably already has some of the genes required to infect humans. Critics of the idea point to the fact that no camel handlers have become infected, but some believe no infections in camel handlers is due to early exposure to the virus.  If this were the case, Iraq could use camelpox in its biological weapons and infect those people who have not been around camels without harming its own troops.

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