Tuesday 13 November, 2001
Scientists and anti-terrorism legislation
Scientists in the United States are warning that anti-terrorism legislation could damage important areas of research.
They're especially concerned about draft legislation which would prevent non-Americans from working on bacteria and viruses. Science In Action reports.
The Patriot Act
The assaults on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001, and the subsequent series of incidents concerning anthrax, has led to new legislation in the United States aimed to reduce the amount of terrorist activity.
US President George Bush recently brought into law the Patriot Act to Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. This aims to protect against various kinds of terrorist activity, including attack with biological weapons.
One of the measures it contains is to prevent people from countries, which the US government believes support terrorism, from working in laboratories which possess potentially dangerous bacteria and viruses.
But other legislation being considered by the Senate would go much further, and ban all non-Americans from these labs.
Ronald Atlas is President-elect of the American Society for Microbiology. He has been giving evidence to the committee, and he is concerned that these restrictions would affect research against natural diseases. He explains:
| ‘This has to be a very careful balance. Natural infections threaten the US national security and global security around the world.' | |
‘We cannot stop our fight against those diseases that are occurring. We definitely need expertise from all over the world, and we need to make sure that we don't cut that off as we begin to tighten our own security in protection against bioterrorism.’
West Nile Fever
Finding a balance between the need for research into new threats whilst investigating existing diseases can be difficult. Over the last few years, the northeastern United States has seen outbreaks of West Nile Fever, a viral disease more commonly found in North Africa.
West Nile virus was first identified in Uganda in 1937. It can cause fever, skin rashes, severe aches and meningitis.
Until recent years it had only ever been recorded in Africa, Asia and some middle Eastern countries but in 1999 it spread. There was an epidemic in Romania, and more than 50 people in New York City became ill.
In the year 2000, 30 people died from West Nile Fever in Israel. France also had cases.
The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes, which pick it up from wild birds.
Ronald Atlas believes that American laboratories need researchers from other parts of the world if they're to deal successfully with diseases like this.
Atlas also told the Senate committee that research into infectious diseases would be compromised by overly tough restrictions on the supply of bacteria and viruses between countries and between laboratories.
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| West Nile Fever Facts |
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West Nile Fever cannot be spread person-to-person.
It is not caught if a person directly handles birds, but is mosquito borne.
Symptoms generally occur 5-15 days following the bite of an infected mosquito. |
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