Civilians cannot be protected from germ warfare - US colonel

Civilians could not be protected from biological warfare, a US military specialist has said. There are too few vaccines or gas masks to protect large populations and early warning systems are not well enough developed to afford any proper protection.

The chilling possibilities of a biological attack were outlined yesterday on the final day of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington. Lieut. Col George W. Christopher of the US Air Force described the main threats and what defence methods would be used. The deliberate use of micro-organisms and poisons had been part of biological warfare throughout history, he said.

"Fortunately, few of the thousands of microbes known to science are suitable BW candidates." They must be easy to mass-produce and store, remain highly infectious and users must have vaccines or other treatments available to protect themselves.

"The BW threat that most easily meets these criteria is anthrax," he said. It is easily dispersed by aerosol and causes high death rates, but there are some limited treatments against its effects.

Col Christopher said another great concern was smallpox, the only disease to have been eradicated worldwide. Routine vaccinations stopped in the US in 1971 and worldwide by 1981, but it represented a serious biological warfare threat. "Since immunity wanes after about three to 10 years following vaccination, our population could be vulnerable to a smallpox BW attack."

The mortality rate was between 20 per cent and 40 per cent in those without immunity and there were few effective treatments. "The CDC [Centres for Disease Control] holds enough vaccine to immunise five to six million people" against smallpox. There were other ways to defend against such an attack, he said, including the use of early-warning detectors which could identify the presence in air of a biological agent.

"If a BW attack on a city can be detected immediately, preventive treatments can be initiated early, when they would be most effective. However, the availability of these detectors for civilian communities is limited." Protective equipment such as masks was another way to reduce the effect of these weapons but there would be limitations.

"While this approach is suitable for the military, it may not be feasible in a civilian setting."

The US takes the biological warfare threat seriously. Training on diagnosing and treating casualties is provided to public health officials in 120 cities.