Daily Star

Virus ‘weapons’ threat to planes

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TERRORISTS could use infectious diseases as “weapons” on passenger jets to infect humans across borders “very quickly”, an expert says.

The warning comes as the US publishes its new bio-defence policy in an attempt to protect against the threat of bio-chemical weapons and outbreaks of infectious disease.

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In the last six months, Zimbabwe has been hit by a wave of cholera, the Democratic Republic of Congo saw a fresh outbreak of Ebola and the Black Death has returned to Madagascar.

And the first Briton ever to be infected by monkeypox told how she fears she may now have passed on the deadly virus to her husband. ®

Professor Wyn Rees, a security expert at Nottingham University, said that spreading diseases via planes was the “holy grail” of terror.

He added: “There are always lots of warnings with these kinds of things, be it bird flu or Ebola or monkeypox. Because the fear is based on the fact they can cross borders very quickly. ®

“It would be incredibly difficult to detect these diseases within a passenger on a plane, when they are sitting dormant.

“It’s important to stress that any attack of this nature would be incredibly difficult to carry out. But there are genuine fears and it remains a real risk.”

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