Book Review

SCOURGE: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox
Jonathan B. Tucker
Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, NY
ISBN# 0-87113-830-1

This should be on the must read list of anyone interested in or concerned about smallpox as a weapon of terrorism.

The book divides itself nicely into two parts.

The first offers very brief details of the biology of Variola Major and a succinct description of its historical impact. The first section closes with a detailed recounting of the enormous and, at times, seemingly insurmountable challenges faced by the WHO Smallpox Eradication Program. This half closes by quoting from the now famous telegraph from Somalia to Geneva. “Search complete. No cases discovered. Ali Maow Maalin is the world’s last known smallpox case.” Tucker’s recounting the conquest of smallpox as man’s greatest public health achievement is masterful and by itself would make the book a compelling read.

Tucker devotes the next chapter of the book to the subsequent WHO efforts to halt vaccination programs and secure all remaining samples of the virus in either Atlanta or Moscow. He then uses those efforts as the bridge to the remaining five chapters.

Those chapters detail the former USSR biological warfare program’s efforts to develop smallpox as the ultimate doomsday weapon. Tucker then takes the reader behind the scenes of the clashing values of science, public policy and military resolve. It is in this section that the book really shines and offers new material and insights into the thinking of those involved in this critical decision.

If you have ever wondered about the reality of the threat of smallpox as a 21st century weapon of terror, you should read at least the last half of this book.

It is now the first on my list of required readings for any courses related to bioterrorism or for next year’s History of Epidemics courses.