2 October 1978: This attack with a poison-tipped umbrella may turn out to involve the first known civilian use of a bacterial warfare agent

The lethal platinum pellet attack on Mr Georgi Markov in London and the unsuccessful attack in Paris on a fellow Bulgarian defector, Mr Vladimir Kostov, may turn out to involve the first known civilian use of a bacterial warfare agent.

A statement from the police in London – based on an assessment at the Ministry of Defence Establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire, that it may be “several months” before the lethal agent can be identified, implies an obscure disease, not a toxin.

The course of the lethal illness induced in Mr Markov, and the symptoms reported by Mr Kostov imply bacterial infection. It seems possible that, had the connection between the two incidents been seen earlier, the anti-serum from Mr Kostov in Paris might have been valuable in treating and possibly saving Mr Markov.

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Mr Markov died last month in St James’s Hospital, Balham, where, suffering from a high fever and low blood pressure, he was treated for blood poisoning. This diagnosis confirms that an agent other than a virus was the cause and suggests strongly that a bacterium must have been responsible.

Small holes drilled in the 1.7mm diameter, platinum pellet subsequently found in Mr Markov’s leg could certainly have contained enough bacterial spores to ensure massive infection.

But why did Mr Kostov survive? According to medical authorities, the explanation could be simple. In Mr Markov’s case the bacterially charged pellet lodged in red muscle, continually active and well supplied with blood, so that the spores were all released and transported.

The pellet in Mr Kostov may have lodged in a much less active area of muscle, and may then have been sealed by the natural blood clotting mechanism of the tissue surrounding it. This would explain why that pellet appears still to contain some material in its two holes.

But if the lethal material is available to the authorities why should it take so long for its identification and what might it be found to be? If bacterial spores are involved then there are several stages in the identification process. This might take several weeks although serum from Mr Kostov whose brief infection indicates a strong immune response and the development of antibodies against the organism could be used to identify whether the same organism was used in both attacks.

There are many diseases which can kill in a few days and evade diagnosis. They include anthrax, brucellosis, and tularemia. Any of these might be selectively bred into a form highly resistant to antibiotics.

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But there is only one naturally occurring organism that appears to fit the symptoms – such as high fever and muscular pain – and be resistant to antibiotics. This is the relatively rare disease known as melioidosis, which stands high on the list of potential warfare agents and has some unusual factors which can cover its presence. In its fatal form it generally kills before it can be identified in the patient by normal immunological techniques. And the injection of relatively low bacterial spores would be enough to overcome any naturally occurring resistance in a potential victim.

It may well be that Porton and the authorities are now looking along these lines.

* A Tory MP yesterday demanded to know if the Government had any evidence of complicity by the Bulgarian authorities in the murder of Mr Markov. “If they have they should not hesitate to use such diplomatic means as they possess to show how seriously they regard this affair,” said Mr Peter Maker, MP for Blackpool South.