No Sign That Doctor Used Deadly Germs on Patients

After weeks investigating complaints of unusual symptoms, state and Orange County health care officials concluded there was no evidence that an Irvine biomedical researcher experimented with rare and potentially deadly germs on some of his patients, officials said Monday.

Fewer than a dozen patients of Dr. Larry C. Ford had complained of undisclosed symptoms while in his care, said County Public Health Officer Dr. Mark Horton. However, there was no pattern of symptoms linked to two types of bacteria--Salmonella typhi and Vibrio cholerae--that were removed from Ford’s home nearly two months ago when police evacuated his Woodbridge neighborhood and searched his residence.

Officials with the county’s Public Health Care Agency and the state’s Department of Health Services closed their investigation weeks ago. But Horton said officials have not ruled out the possibility that others might have come into contact with the germs Ford was keeping.

“We were not coming up with anything fruitful, so we terminated the investigation,” Horton said. “If he was experimenting on anyone, we couldn’t have told it from our investigation.”

Monday’s announcement came as health care officials sought to reassure Irvine residents that the bacteria posed no public health risk. Meanwhile, investigators are continuing attempts to unravel the mystery over how and why Ford possessed the germs, which are listed as possible biological warfare agents by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Health care officials said investigators found no signs that Ford was preparing a biological weapon with the bacteria they removed from his refrigerator. Authorities searching Ford’s home found no equipment capable of reproducing the germs or dispersing them from a weapon, Horton said.

While CDC scientists were able to reproduce salmonella from the samples, both types of germs were in such poor condition that officials believe Ford had no immediate plans to use the bacteria.

“They didn’t look like materials that somebody was actively cultivating,” Horton said.

Nevertheless, FBI agents are continuing with their “weapons of mass destruction” investigation into the substances. Sources told The Times that the FBI is exploring whether Ford stored the potentially deadly bacteria as part of his medical research for his drug company, Biofem Inc., or whether the germs were somehow linked to his involvement with the South African military’s biological weapons program.

The extent of that involvement remains unclear. The former surgeon general of the South African Defense Force said the Irvine biomedical researcher had served as an “informal consultant” during the country’s apartheid era and provided advice on protecting military personnel against biological warfare attacks.

But other scientists involved in the government’s offensive biological weapons program, dubbed “Project Coast,” have told The Times that Ford was involved in a more offensive capacity, lecturing scientists on how to lace household items with biological agents.

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The most significant germ-warfare attack in U.S. history involved a type of salmonella less virulent than the one discovered at Ford’s home. In 1984, members of the Rajneeshee cult in Oregon sprayed a salad bar with the bacterium in an effort to keep people from voting in a local election. The attack gave diarrhea to 751 people.

But Salmonella typhi, which was found at Ford’s home, is among the most dangerous forms of salmonella and causes typhoid fever, a potentially fatal disease that is widespread in developing nations. Vibrio cholerae causes cholera, a highly contagious intestinal disease that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration and can be fatal if not promptly treated.

Although the two have proven devastating elsewhere in the world, the bacteria rarely cause anything beyond severe diarrhea in the United States and, once diagnosed, can easily be treated with antibiotics.

The findings mark another twist in the byzantine murder plot against Ford’s business partner. The chain of events began Feb. 28, when a masked gunman wounded Biofem CEO James Patrick Riley. Within days, police searched Ford’s home in connection with the murder plot. On March 2, Ford shot and killed himself.

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Local authorities then evacuated more than 200 Irvine residents as police dug up a cache of illegal weapons and explosives from the backyard of Ford’s Woodbridge neighborhood home. Hazardous materials teams also removed “suspicious materials” they believed might be hazardous from Ford’s refrigerator.

With Ford as its science director, Biofem was developing a female contraceptive that company literature touted as capable of killing pathogens, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The firm was also working on a bacteria treatment that would protect against certain stomach upsets.

A scientific consultant to the firm said Monday that Biofem never used salmonella typhi or vibrio cholerae and that the company had not yet begun working with any harmful pathogens.

“Categorically, we weren’t working with any of those organisms,” said Biofem consultant Michael Hamrell. “What he was doing in his garage, in his home, I had no idea. It’s just as shocking to me as it is to other people.”

Scientists at the CDC are continuing to test more samples removed from the company. But Hamrell said those samples were most likely samples and prototypes of the products they were making--nothing more harmful than the types of cultures used to make yogurt.