What you don’t know about bioterrorism can kill you

Maj. Gen. Lester Martinez-Lopez, commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel… Maj. Gen. Lester Martinez-Lopez, commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, stressed the need to prepare for new and unclassified diseases and agents during a lecture Tuesday in Scaife Hall.

“We must always be conscientious of the unknown,” Martinez-Lopez said, commenting on the current state of biomedical research.

Martinez-Lopez also touched upon classifications of biological weapons, the process by which vaccines and treatments are developed, and forthcoming advancements in his field.

Martinez-Lopez has studied medicine within the military since 1978. Since March 2002, he has headed the Medical Research and Materiel Command in Detrick, Maryland. Bioterrorism has been a top focus of his office’s work.

Martinez-Lopez listed the classifications of current biological weapons as nerve, blood, skin and respiratory agents.

“We are dealing with a big profile of agents that can be of harm to us,” Martinez-Lopez said.

Martinez-Lopez noted that his agency must not rely on classifications too much, and that they must be alert for “curve balls,” like SARS and newly created bio-weapons.

He explained that his agency is researching a treatment that will block the receptor sites that bioweapons must access to affect the body. Such a treatment would be able to fend off agents, even if they have yet to be studied.

Detection of diseases is also a problem, Martinez-Lopez said. He explained that many U.S. troops in Liberia are showing symptoms of malaria, but the possibility that they have encountered a new bio-terror agent remains open because the army can not diagnose agents that is has not seen before.

“We need technology that can detect the unknown,” Martinez-Lopez said.

His agency is researching methods of detecting diseases and bio-weapons at a molecular level.

Martinez-Lopez also discussed difficulties in developing vaccines and treatments for biological weapons.

“How many people in here would volunteer to test a vaccine for this stuff?” Martinez-Lopez asked. No one in the audience raised a hand.

Martinez-Lopez explained that the military must gain Food and Drug Administration approval for its medicines, just like anyone else.

“When we are applying this to millions of people – kids, people in delicate conditions – we need to be sure it’s safe,” Martinez-Lopez said. “And the FDA is not cutting me any slack because I am with the military.”

Because of the difficulties in testing advancements, the FDA has been willing to accept successful tests on small animals and non-human primates as proof of safety, Martinez-Lopez said. Usually, the FDA requires successful tests on human subjects.

Martinez-Lopez also discussed innovations in vaccines that will be available to the public in 10 to 15 years.

The United States and the United Kingdom both have anthrax vaccines “in the pipeline,” Martinez-Lopez said.

Also, the vaccines required for children to enter public school may no longer be so frightful, he said. There may soon be an “all-in-one” vaccine that will prevent a number of diseases. Also, one may be able to take vaccines through inhalers or by an epidermal ointment.