Global Security Newswire

The U.S. National Institutes of Health is set to provide Albany Medical College with $10.2 million to further investigate the disease agent responsible for producing tularemia, the New York Business Review reported on Monday.

The Health and Human Services Department branch would supply the funds over half a decade to the academic institution, which has received roughly $17.6 million in NIH support for tularemia studies since 2002. Albany Medical College Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease Director Dennis Metzger said the school has achieved "important strides" toward development of the first vaccine for the bacterial pathogen.

The agent is considered a potential candidate for use in an act of biological terrorism. The capability of only 10-15 bacteria to cause lethal infection and the material's high suitability for aerial dispersal have prompted its classification as a "Category A",danger, Metzger said.

The Soviet Union and the United States each held reserves of the pathogen prior to the end of the Cold War, according to the Business Review.