Originally published May 19 2005
Bioweapons experts say smallpox can be sent through the mail
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Citing a 1901 case, several bioweapons experts have told media recently that terrorists can use the U.S. mail to spread the deadly smallpox virus in much the same way they sent anthrax through the mail in 2001. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meanwhile, say they are skeptical of the idea that smallpox can be transmitted via mail.
The experts' comments were spurred by an article in the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, which describes twin outbreaks of smallpox in 1901 that were traced to infected letters.
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta doubted that smallpox could be spread through infected letters, but several bioweapons experts thought otherwise.
D.A. Henderson, of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said it was possible to spread smallpox via the mail if terrorists could aerosolize the virus, similar to what was done with the anthrax spores in the 2001 attacks.
Experts said the real barrier would be not the mail system, but rather obtaining smallpox in the first place.
The only known stocks of the virus in the world reside at CDC headquarters in Atlanta and a bioweapons lab in Russia.
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