[The variola virus as a biological weapon].

In view of the threat of use of the variola virus as a biological weapon, the interest of medical and other public in this causative agent that was eradicated in the wild at the end of the 1970s has increased. The paper gives an outline of the current knowledge on biological properties of the variola virus, and on the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical picture and prophylaxis of the disease caused by this virus. Descriptions of two sudden smallpox epidemics (Germany in 1970 and former Yugoslavia in 1972) could illustrate the potential of the smallpox virus as a biological weapon in bioterrorism and biological warfare.