LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Smallpox: United States
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Smallpox virus, which is among the most dangerous organisms that might be used by bioterrorists, is not widely available. The international black market trade in weapons of mass destruction is probably the only means of acquiring the virus. Thus, only a terrorist supported by the resources of a rogue state would be able to procure and deploy smallpox. An attack using the virus would involve relatively sophisticated strategies and would deliberately seek to sow public panic, disrupt and discredit official institutions, and shake public confidence in government.
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Smallpox will not spread like wildfire,” said Orenstein. He stated that the spread of smallpox to casual contacts is the “exception to the rule.” Only 8% of cases in Africa were contracted by accidental contact.
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Smallpox is primarily spread via airborne, virus-laden droplets exhaled by an infected person. Prolonged contact is not required. In one recorded case, for example, an infected person in a shop passed the virus to two visitors who had made a brief stop in the shop. In a laboratory accident in 1978 in the United Kingdom, a bit of mistakenly released virus traveled via an air duct from one floor of the lab to another, fatally infecting a medical photographer. The virus can ... survive for extended periods in dust, clothing, bedding, and other objects, providing still more opportunities for infection.
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Smallpox is diagnosed in two young children in Megalopolis, a large city in another state. FBI and the National Security Council worry that these cases might signal another attack since the children have had no discernible contact with a smallpox patient or contacts. The possibility that there has been a new attack is weighed against the possibility that the children were infected by a contact of one of the first wave of patients who was missed in the epidemiologic investigation.
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