BioterrorismFate of last smallpox virus samples to be determined today

Published 23 May 2011

The World Health Organization officially declared in 1979 that smallpox has been eradicated; in the three decades since the WHO declaration, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Russian government laboratory near Novosibirsk have been the last two places to keep samples of the smallpox virus; during this time, there have been many calls by scientists and advocates to destroy these last samples — some of these calls accompanied by dark hints that the two countries wanted to hang on to the samples in order to use them as a basis for a future bio-weapon; the United States opposes the destruction, saying that the live samples are needed to develop vaccine with less adverse side effects as well as two other related drugs; a committee of the World Health Organization is meeting today in Geneva to make a decision

The end of the smallpox virus may be near // Source: thestreetjournal.org

The World Health Organization officially declared in 1979 that smallpox has been eradicated. In the three decades since the WHO declaration, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Russian government laboratory near Novosibirsk have been the last two places to keep samples of the smallpox virus.

During this time, there have been many calls by scientists and advocates to destroy these last samples – some of these calls accompanied by dark hints that the two countries wanted to hang on to the samples in order to use them as a basis for a future bio-weapon.

Today, Monday, a body of WHO – called the World Health Assembly — is meeting in Geneva to decide whether or not the time has arrived to destroy these last two samples.

Empowered News reports that U.S. officials have defended the continued storage of smallpox virus samples because vaccines will need to be prepared to combat future outbreaks. The United States says scientists are still working on a vaccine with less adverse side effects as well as two other related drugs.

Dr. Nils Daulaire, the U.S. representative on the WHO executive board, said that a fixed timetable cannot be made because research is unpredictable. “We’re talking about getting the science right,” he said. “We do favor the eventual destruction of the stocks once the primary goals of the research have been achieved. We don’t think it’s a never-ending process.”

A WHO advisory panel last year backed the U.S. arguments that keeping the samples would be beneficial, saying that new vaccines and antiviral drugs can be developed using the remaining smallpox virus stocks.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the United States must win over skeptical governments — particularly in developing countries — which their countries would be the first to suffer from an accidental release and say the best defense is to destroy the stocks. “You just can’t provide 100% security,” argued D. A. Henderson, head of the WHO’s eradication campaign and a distinguished scholar at the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh.

The main challenge for U.S. scientists is to find a testing model that works with animals, because smallpox infects only humans. The Journal notes that U.S. government scientists believe they will find an animal model that works. At a meeting late last year with virologists from other fields, scientists identified some potential new methods, such as alternative ways of administering doses of virus.