This refers to T R Ramaswami's letter, "Biological warfare" (July 29). Apropos his observations on smallpox, the Scientific Reports magazine in a recent article on a study observed that "A bio-terrorism attack could spread to several continents" before it is even detected. The study found that if a small group of terrorists infected themselves with a disease such as smallpox and walked around London, then the pathogens could spread to up to four nations before doctors managed to diagnose it. This is not unbelievable since we already have many terrorists walking around with bombs in their vests.
H N Ramakrishna Bangalore
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