Frontline health service staff in Scotland and the Scottish military will receive vaccinations against the potentially lethal smallpox virus.

The precautions are being taken in the light of the current bioterrorist threat around the world.

UK ministers stressed there was no specific threat of an attack against armed forces or the British mainland and the vaccination measures were a precaution.

The Scottish Ambulance Service said eight mobile decontamination units were on strategically placed standby around the country, in readiness for a possible biological attack.

Smallpox could be used by bioterrorists

Smallpox is a highly infectious virus which kills approximately one in three of those infected.

The disease was eradicated in its natural form after a global mass vaccination campaign.

However, it still exists in laboratory conditions and there are fears that it could have been obtained by terrorists and may be used in an attack.

Full details of how Scotland might handle a biological attack will be given in the Scottish Parliament later this week.

Disease control

On Monday, the UK Government announced the creation of "Regional Smallpox Response Groups" which would be called in to respond in the event of an attack.

The group will consist of infectious disease specialists, paediatricians, public health doctors, microbiologists and virologists.

Specialist disease control nurses will also be on the teams.

The Department of Health says that these core groups will need to be immunised against the disease.