[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2406-S2407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          VA RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY ORAL TREATMENT FOR SMALLPOX

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Madam President, as the Chairman of the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs, I am committed to focusing a spotlight on findings 
by researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA. For too long, 
VA researchers have labored with only the recognition of their peers to 
acknowledge the excellent caliber of VA research into the treatment of 
a wide range of diseases.
  A recent finding--the discovery of a drug that might help us fight 
smallpox, the most feared weapon in bioterrorists' arsenal--offers real 
hope for protecting our Nation against the threat of bioterrorism. This 
discovery demonstrates again how integral VA's efforts are not only to 
public health and research, but to domestic security.
  VA's Medical Research Service may not support as many projects as the 
NIH, but its work has yielded effective treatments for diseases that 
include schizophrenia, diabetes, cancer, depression, heart disease and 
stroke. Some of my colleagues may know that VA's expertise in 
prosthetics and spinal cord injury research is unparalleled; fewer may 
be aware that VA researchers pioneered the concepts that allowed 
development of the CAT scan and MRI, the cardiac pacemaker, and safe 
kidney and liver transplants. VA researchers have demonstrated the best 
clinical practices for detecting high cholesterol and colon cancer, 
launched a large-scale study to determine the best way to treat HIV 
infection, and started a landmark clinical trial to treat Parkinson's 
disease.
  In March, VA researchers announced another breakthrough finding. Two 
VA researchers, Dr. Karl Hostetler and Dr. James Beadle of the VA San 
Diego Healthcare System, worked with military and academic colleagues 
to develop a drug that could be the best tool we have yet to protect 
the public from the threat of smallpox.
  Until recently, only vaccination could be used to stop the spread of 
a smallpox epidemic. Because doctors eradicated naturally occurring 
smallpox in the 1960's, the smallpox vaccine has been neither 
manufactured nor used regularly in decades, leaving the American 
population vulnerable to a deliberate attack by terrorists. Although 
HHS recently accelerated and expanded a plan to vaccinate the U.S. 
population, the vaccine doses will not be ready for some time, and are 
not without risk of potentially serious side-effects.
  Although researchers proved several years ago that an existing drug 
called cidofovir could prevent smallpox from multiplying and spreading, 
this drug had to be administered intravenously, over the course of at 
least an hour. In the case of an epidemic, it would simply be 
impossible to treat every person at risk.
  Drs. Hostetler and Beadle and their colleagues developed a powerful 
form of this drug that can be taken as a pill or a capsule. Although 
this research is still in its early stages, VA and military scientists 
showed that a few oral doses of this drug each day protected animals 
completely against a virus closely related to smallpox. In the near 
future, we may be able to contain any potential outbreak of smallpox 
using this simple medication, rendering smallpox useless as a 
biological weapon.
  This research promises to bear fruit not only for emergency medical 
preparedness, but for those who must take cidofovir to treat more 
common but still devastating viral infections.
  This work grew from a collaboration between VA, military, NIH, and 
academic researchers. As I have said many times, we cannot in these 
times neglect any resource available to us when confronting potentially 
catastrophic threats to this nation's health, whether in offering 
medical care or developing

[[Page S2407]]

new technologies and treatments to protect the public.
  I am proud to recognize the insight that these researchers and VA 
have shown, and continue to show, in exploring cutting-edge research. 
This is yet another contribution that the VA health care system has 
made, not only to the health of our nation's veterans, but to our 
national safety and well-being.

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