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Back on the front lines: Bioterrorism threatens to resurrect an old foe

This physician spent his career waging war on infectious diseases. But the most crucial test may still await him.

By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. March 17, 2003.

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Donald A. Henderson, MD, MPH, can honestly claim to have once fought the smallpox virus -- and won.

From 1966 to 1977, he traveled to the far corners of the globe, directing the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate smallpox. The last naturally occurring case was detected in Somalia in 1977.

The threat of bioterrorism, however, has forced him to face off again against the very foe once thought vanquished.

At age 74, Dr. Henderson is back in the trenches, taking a place on the front lines in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services' effort to address the nation's vulnerability to the weaponized versions of smallpox and other dread biological agents. He recently spoke with AMNews, both about his experiences and the challenges that lie ahead.

Question: What are your thoughts on having to continue to fight smallpox long after you thought it had been eradicated?

Answer: The thing I find most disturbing is that while we were working with WHO on the program to eradicate smallpox, it was clear that there was one component in the Soviet Union that was working assiduously to weaponize this virus. It's quite obvious that they had some of their best biological talent working to advance the state of the art at a time when other countries had stopped their research in this area. Had there not been this investment in the development of biological weapons by the Soviet Union, I think we would be looking at a very different set of risks and problems today. Every time I think about this I'm angry. And it's very hard to feel otherwise.