United States:  Engineer Convicted of Making Ricin

A federal jury in Washington state convicted a computer engineer of making and possessing ricin in an effort to kill his wife, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, July 2).

In her July 1 opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Whitaker said Kenneth Olsen possessed enough powdered ricin, which is produced from castor beans, to kill up to 7,500 people (Los Angeles Times, July 18).

Olsen’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 14 and each of the two counts against him carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine (Associated Press/CNN.com, July 18).

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U.S. Response:  House Votes For Project Bioshield

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation yesterday to enact the Project Bioshield Act of 2003, a federal program to develop medicines that would defend the nation from a bioterrorist attack (see GSN, July 1).

“The wolves of terrorism are still on the lurk,” said House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas).

The House voted 421-2 to establish Project Bioshield, which would provide $5.6 billion over the next decade to push research into normally unprofitable drugs.  The plan would guarantee pharmaceutical companies a buyer for drugs that can be used to counter terrorism.

Supporters of the plan said it will prove worthwhile if there is an attack with dangerous biological agents.

“Essentially, the product has no value if you don’t need it, but infinite value if you do,” said Gillian Woollett, an official with BIO, the biotechnology trade organization (Sheryl Stolberg, New York Times, July 17).

Yesterday’s legislation established the framework for the plan, but the House Appropriations Committee must still address the issue.  Because bipartisan support for the legislation is so overwhelming, the committee is expected to approve the full $5.6 billion over the next ten years, according to an spokeswoman for Representative Billy Tauzin (R-La.), the sponsor of yesterday’s bill and the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.  The money will be appropriated all at once, but officials will be forced to spend it over the full decade, according to the spokeswoman.

Officials will be able to spend $3.4 billion over the next five years (David McGlinchey, Global Security Newswire, July 17).

Two Republican representatives, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Ron Paul of Texas, voted against the bill, while U.S. President George W. Bush applauded the move.

“This legislation will help spur the development and availability of next-generation countermeasures against biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons,” Bush said.

Meanwhile, the plan has stalled in the Senate while lawmakers argue over whether to allocate funding for the program in one lump sum or annually.

“I urge the Senate to act on this very important legislation,” Bush said (Vicki Kemper, Los Angeles Times, July 17).

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Smallpox:  Officials Want Renewed Immunization Effort

The U.S. smallpox immunization program has essentially ground to a halt, but U.S. officials and public health experts are pushing for a resumption in vaccinations, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, July 15).

“Our goal at this point should be to meet (President Bush’s) plan and to vaccinate the number of people originally targeted in the health care community of between 400,000 and 500,000,” said William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.  “I would certainly be more comfortable if we had that number of civilians prepared to respond,” he added.

Some public health experts have said that the end of the Iraq war has undermined the immunization drive.

“People are now back in dumb-and-happy mode,” said Tara O’Toole, director of the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at Johns Hopkins University.  She said the nation no longer has the sense of urgency that it had “when we were going into Iraq, and the possibility of a smallpox attack was seen as much more plausible.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year said it would take more than 1 million immunized health workers to operate enough stations to vaccinate the country within 10 days, but Yale University professor Edward Kaplan has said that the United States has a long way to go to reach that goal.

“If you believe it’s a serious threat — and plenty of credible folks do believe it is a threat — then it makes sense to be ready to push the button,” Kaplan said.  “We are not in a position to respond rapidly if we have to,” he added (Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, July 17).

As of July 4, less than 38,000 civilian health care workers had received the vaccination (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release, July 4).

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Anthrax:  Bacterium Toxin Can Disable Immune System, Scientists Say

Researchers have discovered how anthrax is able to evade the human immune system — a finding that could lead to the development of better treatments against the disease, BBC News reported today (see GSN, July 10).

Scientists have learned that “lethal factor,” one of three toxins produced by the anthrax bacterium, is able to disable dendritic cells, which help stimulate the body’s immune system, according to BBC News.  When these cells are disabled, the body is unable to stimulate the immune response, allowing infection to spread within the body, said Bali Pulendran of Emory University.

“Our ultimate goal is to apply this novel finding to develop better anthrax treatments and to shape future research into controlling immune responses more appropriately,” Pulendran said (BBC News, July 17).

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Food Safety:  FDA Awards Contract to Review Food Safety

The U.S. Food And Drug Administration announced yesterday that it has awarded a contract for a research group to review the nation’s food safety (see GSN, June 12).

“The Institute of Food Technologists review will focus on preventative controls and research needs that might be used for eliminating or reducing the risk of an intentional act of terrorism or contamination for high- and medium-risk combinations of various food commodities and agents,” the FDA said in a statement.

The institute will look at possible technologies that could protect the food supply.

The review, which is scheduled for completion in June 2004, will not be made public, Reuters reported (Reuters, July 15).

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