Small pox virus destruction pushed back to 2014

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMay 24 2011

The last existing vials of smallpox virus in the U.S. and Russia and due for destruction, have won at least another three years in existence. This is suggesting other countries concur with the U.S. about their value, one leading health official said. The experts and delegates at the annual meeting of the World Health Organization agreed on Tuesday to wait until 2014 to decide on a firm deadline for the final destruction of the lethal virus.

The World Health Organization has called for the destruction of such stockpiles since the disease was declared eradicated in 1980. The U.S., meanwhile, has argued that researchers need time to develop safe vaccines and antivirals in case other sources of smallpox are discovered. This last decision indicates that other countries agree with the U.S. position, says Nils Daulaire, director of the Office of Global Health Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

He said, “In the past, assemblies have called for immediate destruction or for setting a date for destruction. The tenor of the debate really was much more oriented toward the recognition it would be time for us to have countermeasures.” Some of these countermeasures include new, safer vaccines. The earlier vaccine could not be used in people with a depressed immune system he explained. In addition to vaccines, two or possibly three antivirals that could treat people infected with smallpox would be necessary in case of an outbreak, Daulaire said. One such antiviral, currently known as ST-246, is being developed under a 5-year contract awarded in May by Health and Human Services.

Daulaire said, “We’ve urged that the deadline not be set on the basis on a certain number of years, but based on when the science is at the point that there’s no need for stocks of smallpox.” Twenty seven other countries signed on as cosponsors of the US proposal, Daulaire said, adding that some were from sub-Saharan Africa, an area he says is becoming more concerned about the potential threat of a biological attack and the emergence of other related infectious diseases.

The WHO statement said the 67th WHA (in 2014) will review the state of variola virus research when it once again takes up the question of a destruction date. US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius said, however, that the US was committed to the eventual destruction of the virus stocks.