CHEMICAL AND radioac-
tive pollution of the envi-
ronment have so captured
the popular imagination
hat the most serious threats
{io human welfare are some-
‘imes overlooked. Through-
out evolutionary history,
infectious disease has been
he overriding threat to the
species. In contemporary
life, only warfare makes a
competing claim.

Antibiotics are often, but
neorrectly, credited with a
arge share of the advances
ifainst disease, That. credit
yelongs rather to environ-
nental engineering. Proce-
jures like the control of
‘ats, fleas and lice, suppres-
sion of mosquiloes by drain-
ge (and, Ict it be admitted,
DDT), quarantine and the
nechanical separation of
lrinking water from sewer-
nee channels have pre-
vented far more iinesses
han medicine would know
now to cure.

Bacterial infections are
ruly far less threatcning
now that antibiotics are
available. However, to re-
fule the cliche of the “con-
yuest” of vlague, one need
merely look up the statistics
of bubonic plague in South-
past Asia, of gonorrhea
among teen-agers or of tu-
perculosis on Capitol Hill.

VIRUS INFECTIONS re-
main as a global time bomb
against which we have few
defenses once it has
erupted. We are all well ac-
quainted with the periodic
sweep of influenza across
the carth as new strains of
viruses evolve. ‘This disease
is not ta be shrugged off,
but a minor change in the
biolosy of the virus could
five it access to the brain
and make it a scourge with-
put preeedent.

Every year or so, further-
more, we read of a new, €x-
otic virus that has broken
out as a small epidemic.
Such  jincidents probably
vecur quite offen in medi-
cally deprived communities
where new diseases may cs-
cape notice. Last mouth, vi-
rologisis at Yale University
announced that work on
“Lassa fever” was too dan-
Ferous to continue at a uni-
versity laboratory and re-
quired the special faciltiies
of the National Communica-

 

 

ble Discase Center of the
Public Uealth Service at At-
Tanta,

This caution responds to a
terrible responsibility which
goes beyond the risks of
infection and death of rnore
laboratory worllers. What
would prevent the escape of
such a virus to the general
population?

We now hear that further
cases of a disease resem-
bling Lassa fever have been
reported from Jos, another
town in Nigeria almost 300
miles away. If this is con-
firmed, we have to conclude
that this virus is widespread
in Nigeria, and we can
hardly afford not to study it
to forearm ourselves against
its spread. And we cannot
blind ourselves to the likeli-
hood that a hundred similar
viruses are being incubated
in animal population reser-
voirs, and are evolving anew
with genetic changes and
hybridization of established
viruses,

PUBLIC HEALTH  offi-
cials have been loath to
dramatize this superordi-
nate threat. It has, however,
been ventilated by the pol-
icy studies on biological
warfare that led to Presi-
dent Nixon's renunciation of
U.S, research on germ weap-
ons. As he implied, to use
human intelligence for the
intentional design of new di-
seases is so blatantly sui-
cidal that it cannot be justi-
fied by any fancied military
advantage.

However, the abandon-
ment of secret development
work merely stops more
mischief; we have still to es-
tablish an effective interna-

tional defense against the
remaining threats of natural
pestilence. These are seri-
ously aggravated by the par-
adox of the coexistence of
jet transport, famine and
squalor,

Dr. P. Dorolle, deputy

director general of the
World Health Organization,
is one of the few to have
spoken out about the gaps
in our present response, He
refers, for example, to the
threat that yellow fever may
penctrate into Asia, where
“the virus would find ideal
climatic conditions, an un-
vaccinated human popula-

‘tion and its favorite vector,”

the Aedes mosquito.

In this circumstance,
every single uncontrolled
casé of yellow fever is a
threat to Ihuindreds of mil-
lions of people. Much the

same could be said for many
other diseases, which de-
mands a Jevel of interna-
tional cooperation in surveil-
lance and control that tran-
scends political differences.

The necessury control
metheds will remain uncer-
fain and awkward until we
Jearn much more about vi-
ruses, particularly about
their biochemistry and ge-
netics, for which the basic
tools have recently been
perfected. The United States
could do a great deal to res-
fore its historic reputation
as a defender of human lib-
erties and health if it reas-
signed our erstwhile biolagi-
cal warfare laboratories, as
at Ft. Detrick, to make them
an internaticnal research
center for virological peace-
fare,

© 1970, The Washington Post Co.

 

Dear Harry-Kgre

I saw your letter to the
editor (2/22/70), and the
editorial in the NYT (2/11)
to which it responded only
after this was in press.

I think you were quite
right to answer as you did,
for you were unfairly bur-
dened.

The editorial did, never-
theless raise a more general
question, Similar to the one
I put myself, that needs to
be addressed about public
health pretection against new
viruses. Obviously, the tra-
veller who returns with no
apparent illness at all, rep-
resents the worst hazard,
and a responsibility hardly
Within your personal province

Sincerely,

Our CBW Faeilities Could

Help Against Pestilences |

MAR 7 1970

This communication relates
to a column "Science & Man"
distributed weekly by the
Washington Post.

Joshua Lederberg