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“Weaponized” Flu a Threat, Say U.T. Health Science Center Experts

HOUSTON – (July 9, 2003)—Influenza has “enormous potential for bioterrorism,” posing a far worse risk than diseases like smallpox and anthrax, say lead author Mohammed Madjid, M.D., and fellow researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. A special article in the July issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (U.K.) explains the issues at stake and proposes defensive measures governments should adopt to combat the threat of “weaponized” flu.

A team led by S. Ward Casscells III, M.D., who is the health science center’s vice president for biotechnology, the John Edward Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine and a professor of cardiology at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, pioneered research on the link between flu and fatal heart attacks. Their data suggested influenza may be four times more deadly than previous estimates showed. Once the effect on the heart is taken into account, the team calculated, up to 90,000 deaths per year in the United States may be flu-related.

Scientists have nearly finished sequencing the flu genome from the 1918 epidemic that killed 20-40 million people worldwide. The possibility of “malicious genetic engineering” creating even more virulent strains of flu viruses is “moving from theory to practice,” warn the authors.

Although many bioterrorism warnings have focused on diseases like smallpox and anthrax, flu is common enough that a cluster of cases would not cause public health alarms at first.

“Influenza has a lot of potential for terrorism,” Madjid said in an interview. “It is very much readily available, unlike smallpox or anthrax, and it can be easily manipulated.”

A terrorist could transmit a genetically engineered flu virus in a passenger plane or subway by using an aerosol spray—a far more effective method of causing infection than relying on direct personal contact, the researchers point out.

Once a flu epidemic has started, it is more difficult to immunize against, because the incubation period is short (1-4 days). Birds, rats and pigs all carry flu, so the virus also is very difficult to wipe out.

The article warns that “even a natural epidemic of influenza can devastate our health care system and render society vulnerable to terrorism attacks of any kind.” With the added threat of flu used as a bioweapon, preventative actions should include:

* Better security for key laboratories, vaccine manufacturers and distributors
* Stockpiling antiviral drugs and improving vaccine development programs
* Extending and improving flu immunization programs
* Expanding disease surveillance, perhaps offering incentives for reporting cases of flu
* Antiviral filters, biosensors and inactivation systems for ventilation systems

In addition to Madjid and Casscells, other authors of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine article include Scott Lillibridge, M.D., director of the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness and professor of epidemiology at The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, and Parsa Mirhaji, M.D., UT Medical School.

The team’s research is partly supported by the U.S. Army’s Disaster Relief and Emergency Medical Services (DREAMS) grant.

http://publicaffairs.uth.tmc.edu/media/newsreleases/nrSpecial/nr2003/weapon.html