-Caveat Lector-
US years behind in bioweapons defense
Wednesday, 20 October 1999 23:18 (GMT)
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=121985
(UPI Focus)
US years behind in bioweapons defense
By PAMELA HESS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) - The United States is 25 to 30 years
behind in the development of vaccines against biological weapons and
must dramatically alter its approach if it's ever to catch up, said Ken
Alibeck, former deputy director of the Soviet civilian biological
weapons program.
"I didn't want to say this, but we have a problem developing
protection against biological weapons. Now we have a very significant
gap between our defense and what can be (used offensively against us),"
Alibek warned the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
Alibek has been one of the CIA's top sources of information on the
Russian biological weapons program since his defection in 1992.
He said the Soviet Union developed at least 100 strains of disease
for use in weapons, but the United States is still developing antidotes
for those developed in the 1970s.
Developing single vaccines for each strain is an unworkable solution,
he said. Instead, he recommends a novel approach: directing research
toward strengthening the human immune system to resist all viruses
rather than just inoculating against a few.
"It's quite a long shot, but in three, five, seven years, we may be
able to say biological weapons are not a threat anymore," he said. "If
we continue efforts to develop vaccines, we will always be developing
new, and new, and new (medicines)."
The Defense Department's efforts stop short of Alibek's vision.
Military planners are trying to develop vaccines that can handle more
than one virus by addressing a common pathogen, defense officials told
the committee on Wednesday.
Because of Russia's economic troubles an unknown number of the 50,000
to 70,000 employees of biological weapons laboratories may be selling
their expertise abroad, Alibek warned.
"Russia has at least two strains of plague which are resistant to
vaccines," Alibek said.
Although Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared an end to the
biological weapons program in 1994, Alibek warned that Russia's refusal
to allow the United States access to its laboratories makes him
concerned that the program has been restarted.
"I don't believe Russia is posing a specific threat today, but we
have no idea what's happening in a year, in five years," he said.
--
Copyright 1999 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
--
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
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