If you’re part of the generation that lived through the eradication of smallpox in 1980, you might have forgotten about the virus altogether.
For the record: It was wiped out, and yet it’s still around.
And it will linger for at least three more years, thanks to a World Health Assembly decision May 24.
On that day, two-dozen countries decided to allow the U.S. and Russia to maintain a small portion of smallpox for research purposes. Only three countries – China, Thailand and Iran – opted for a quicker destruction of the world’s remaining smallpox virus. To dispel any fears, the smallpox is not just sitting around somewhere unattended; it’s located in safe, secure laboratories.
Supporters of keeping smallpox around say researching the actual virus is the most effective way for scientists to produce medical countermeasures against an unexpected smallpox release.
Which might have you wondering: If Russia and the U.S. are the only two countries in possession of smallpox, why would the world health community worry about smallpox as a bioterror threat?
That’s because smallpox – though eradicated– can be re-created in a laboratory. Having said that, researchers in Russia and the U.S. who work in labs need not worry about contracting smallpox.
“To be quite honest, it’s a perfectly safe virus to work with if you’re vaccinated,” according to Dr. David Evans, a researcher at the University of Alberta and an expert on smallpox.
Evans gets as close to smallpox as he can get in Canada. He’s been to both labs in Russia and the U.S. and says those labs are secure.
“I’m convinced for different reasons that the viruses are safe in both places,” Evans said.
There is a concern that lingering smallpox stock could wreak global havoc if put in the wrong hands.
One former World Health Organization advisory committee thinks the decision not to destroy the remaining stock of smallpox could be a recipe for disaster. Dr. Kalyan Banerjee, who also directed the National Institute of Virology in Pune, India, says in an Economic Times article that if the WHO continues to delay the destruction of smallpox, it “may truly become a poor man’s atom bomb” for developing countries or perhaps even terrorist organization.
Here’s the language from the 64th World Health Assembly press release:
Reaffirmed that the remaining stock of smallpox virus should be destroyed
The Health Assembly strongly reaffirmed the decision of previous Assemblies that the remaining stock of smallpox (variola) virus should be destroyed when crucial research based on the virus has been completed. The state of variola virus research will be reviewed at the 67th World Health Assembly in 2014 and in light of that, determining a date for destruction of the remaining virus stocks will be discussed.
Notice, the headline supports the idea that smallpox ought to be destroyed. However, no timetable is given because the research is pending.
Dr. Evans acknowledged that the advent of gene synthesis ushered in an ironic concern. While gene synthesis is meant to open doors that will one day protect populations against disease, the flipside of the breakthrough might be of serious concern. Eradicated viruses are never really wiped out.
“The technology now exists to rebuild these viruses if you really wanted to,” Evans said. “It wouldn’t be easy but it’d be pretty cheap.”
So even when the debate on whether to get rid of smallpox stock returns to the World Health Assembly’s table 2014, it will be sort of a moot point. Smallpox can be recreated even when it’s gone.
