Although smallpox by itself is problematic as an effective
bioweapon, it has been shown that smallpox may be more useful as a delivery vehicle for a more deadly condition.
Australian scientists (Jackson, Ramsay, Christensen, Beaton, Hall, and Ramshaw, of the Pest Animal Control Cooperative Research Centre, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra, Australia) have added a gene responsible for producing
interleukin-4 to
mousepox. 2 out of 4 mice that had been vaccinated against mousepox died. All mice not vaccinated died.
Presumably, this would work something like a fast-acting
immunodeficiency virus. So I have affectionately dubbed such a theoretical smallpox modification "
AIDSpox". Normal smallpox methods of preventing the spread of the disease (quarantine) would still apply, of course.
I've been asked to revise this for clarity, so here are relevant facts I have been asked for and quotes to supplement:
It turns out the vaccine was successful half the time, according to New Scientist, with the connotation that this was an optimistic figure if such an experiment were repeated. I don't remember where my 75% mortality came from. In the above, "2 out of 4" originally read "3 out of 4". Please pretend I didn't write it. We Apologize For The Inconvenience.
Further (emphasis is all mine):
The researchers were actually working on a mouse contraceptive vaccine for pest control, according to New Scientist today. But they started with a mousepox virus that normally made laboratory mice feel mildly ill. They inserted an extra gene, and ended up with a virus that wiped out all animals in nine days.1
And,
Mousepox normally causes only mild symptoms in the type of mice used in the study, but with the IL-4 gene added it wiped out all the animals in nine days. "It would be safe to assume that if some idiot did put human IL-4 into human smallpox they'd increase the lethality quite dramatically," says Jackson. "Seeing the consequences of what happened in the mice, I wouldn't be the one who'd want to do the experiment."2
And my personal favorite:
It's surprising how very, very bad the virus is.
- Ann Hill, a vaccine researcher from Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.2
Sources:
1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4115493,00.html
2 http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999311
Jackson RJ, Ramsay AJ, Christensen CD, Beaton S, Hall DF and Ramshaw IA. (2001). Expression of mouse interleukin-4 by a recombinant ectromelia virus suppresses cytolytic lymphocyte responses and overcomes genetic resistance to mousepox. Journal of Virology 75: 1205-1210.