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WERE ULTRAS RESPONSIBLE FOR SURAT PLAGUE?
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To: editor@rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu
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Subject: WERE ULTRAS RESPONSIBLE FOR SURAT PLAGUE?
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From: "Dinesh Agrawal" <DXA4@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>
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Date: Sun, 30 Jul 95 14:37 EDT
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From ajay@mercury.aichem.arizona.edu Tue Aug 1 12: 51:08 1995
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Resent-Message-Id: <Pine.ULT.3.90.950801095711.6492D@mercury.aichem.arizona.edu>
WERE ULTRAS RESPONSIBLE FOR SURAT PLAGUE?
The Hindustan Times, July 9, 1995
New Delhi (PTI): Deadly plague microbes made in the labortatory
by a Professor are being sold by a company in the Republic of
Kazakhstan, according to information in possession of the Indian
Government.
This shocking revelation has given a thrust to the investigation
on the origin of last year's outbreak in Surat.
A highly placed official, on condition of anonymity, said " we
already know that the Surat strain was not Indian. We cannot rule
out the possibility of militants purchasing the organisms from the
Kazakhastan company and releasing them in Surat".
He said that from being a more public health problem the Surat
outbreak has now become an issue involving intelligence agencies
and the Ministry of Defence.
Dr, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Defence Science Adviser is personally
looking into this matter with help from scientists of the defence
research labortatory in Gwalior, who have specialised knowledge
in the field of biological and chemical agents.
The decision taken by Dr Kalam at a meeting he held with defence
scientists at midnight last night is not known.
It was only last week that the Indian Government received the
information about a firm called "viva" located in Almaty in
Kazakhstan selling plague microbes.
The company claims itself to be an "official representative"
of Prof. I.L. Martinevsky, a scientist who has produced several
strains of the plague microbes.
Attempts to contact the Director of the Company, Mr VE Ponomayov
did not succeed and the company failed to acknowledge fax messages.
Information received by the Govrnment said that the company "
conducted negotiations with regard to sales of strains of plague
microbes" on the instructions of Prof. Martinevsky. The Professor
too could not be contacted.
The company's "cataloge" contains 29 entries. The plague strains
on the list are described as "high virulent mutant", "natural high
virulent" or "natural avirulent," the antibiotics to which they are
sensitive or resistant are also mentioned....
Laboratories around the world do exchange microorganisms for
research and diagnostic purposes. But what has surprised Indian
officials is the commercial transactions in deadly organisms...
There has been suspician that the Surat strain might have
been genetically engineered ever since the Government received
the test reports from the United States describing it as
"unique" and unrelated to any known strain in the world.
According to Indian scientists, Kazakhstan was one of the
three places in the erstwhile user where plague laboratories
had been set up. All these laboratories had connection with
the military.
