Wednesday, April 10, 2002

By TOM PAULSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Sergei Popov, a former bioweapons scientist in the Soviet Union, yesterday told an audience gathered in Seattle for a meeting on bioterrorism that they have a lot more to worry about than garden-variety anthrax or smallpox.

"For a long time, I wanted to forget what I had done," Popov told several hundred people at the BioDefense Mobilization Conference. The meeting, held through tomorrow at the Westin Hotel, was organized by Redmond-based Genelex Corp. to promote a dialogue on bioterror preparedness.

What he had done, Popov explained, is use the tools of molecular biology in an attempt to create even nastier bugs.

"There's no data on this," he said. "You will have to believe me or not."

After cataloging some of the 50 or so naturally occurring viruses, bacteria and toxins available to bioweaponeers, the former Soviet scientist said he and his colleagues spent decades working with these biological agents to improve their lethal power and ease of distribution.

While manipulating a particular strain of Marburg virus in 1986, a bug similar to the Ebola virus, one of Popov's colleagues became infected and died horribly. He said the family of his colleague was not allowed to even see the body for fear of infection.

"Genetic manipulation has enormous potential," Popov said. "It's now possible to create new diseases from scratch."

Many of the engineered bugs are difficult to produce in mass quantities, he said, and the technical expertise necessary to accomplish such feats is beyond that of a small gang of terrorists working out of a simple lab. But, Popov emphasized, it is possible that "terrorist states" are working along these lines. Some of the goals include artificial viruses, resistant bugs, new toxins or even something he called a "bacterial pro-virus."

The bacterial pro-virus concept, the former Soviet scientist said, is to place a virus inside bacteria, so that when people with bacterial illnesses are treated with antibiotics, the virus gets released. Popov said he and his colleagues were experimenting with placing the virus that causes viral encephalitis inside the bacteria for bubonic plague (Yersinis pestis). They also looked into using Legionella to carry plague, he said.

Popov said the Soviets even published papers on some of their accomplishments, though never acknowledging they were intended for use as weapons. Using an overhead screen, he displayed a paper his colleagues published in the early 1990s, reporting they had created a virus that causes an autoimmune response against a person's nerves -- induced multiple sclerosis.

"Nobody paid any attention," he said, until Western scientists reported the same thing last year. Popov said everyone in the Soviet Union was secretly vaccinated against botulinum toxin (mixed into a routine polio vaccine) years ago because of plans to use this toxin in a weapon.

The point of all this? Popov, who now works in Washington, D.C., for the bioterrorism consulting firm Advanced Biosystems Inc., said he wanted the audience to realize just how vast and advanced the threat of bioterrorism is today.

Howard Coleman, chief executive at Genelex, opened the conference by reflecting upon the end of the Cold War and how the once-palpable fear of nuclear war has receded. Now, because of bioterrorism, Coleman said, "There is fear again."

The federal government has responded by authorizing billions of dollars for beefing up our defenses against such acts of terror, he said. The purpose of the conference, Coleman said, is to consider all of the options and make wise choices.

The keynote speaker was retired U.S. Army Col. Danny McKnight, commander of the ground convoy for the infamous "Black Hawk Down" mission. McKnight had little to say about bioterrorism but a lot to say about the need to prepare for emergencies based on his experience in Mogadishu.

"I was asked to talk about the book and the movie," McKnight said. So he did, ending with the admonition that "you have to have a plan."

Dr. Victor Sidel, former president of the American Public Health Association and a co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, told the audience that the conference is an example of how off-course the nation is already.

"What I want to talk about is protecting the population from the hazards of bioterrorism preparedness," Sidel said. While many in the audience shook their heads, he criticized the current single-minded focus on bioterrorism as dangerous and shortsighted, undermining more important priorities in public health.

Perhaps because the conference was organized and primarily sponsored by companies who are marketing products, Sidel also suggested that each speaker reveal any potential conflicts of interest. Few of the speakers that followed took that suggestion to heart.

P-I reporter Tom Paulson can be reached at 206-448-8318 or tompaulson@seattlepi.com
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/65927_bioterror10.shtml