Not black and white for long. a WHO Advisory Committee approved experiments that would add a fluorescent green marker gene to the smallpox virus.
An Advisory Committee World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that scientists be allowed to genetically modify the smallpox virus. If the recommendation is accepted by WHO Director General Jong-wook Lee and the World Health Assembly, it would be the first time since smallpox was eradicated that scientists would be allowed this organization to genetically modify the virus.
Smallpox eradication is one of the greatest triumphs WHO: a disease that used to kill millions has been eliminated thanks to a vaccination campaign in the world. The samples of the smallpox virus still only known are stored frozen under tight security in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and the research center VECTOR in Koltsovo, Russia. Many involved in the eradication effort pushed for stocks remaining to be destroyed, but others argued that stocks should be kept to allow research on new treatments or safer vaccines in cases of terrorists or rogue countries have secret caches.
A WHO Advisory Committee must approve any research done with remaining stock, and CDC scientists recently requested permission to insert a marker gene encoding green fluorescent protein in the virus to make it easier to test the efficacy of new antiviral drugs. The modified virus would then be a green light under fluorescent light as long as the virus is intact. In the presence of effective drugs, the green glow will fade. The Advisory Committee approved these experiences last week, according to a WHO spokesman.
The experiment in question "has a clear scientific justification" with little or no chance of accidentally creating a more dangerous virus, said molecular biologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. The review process, it went through "is an example of how the process should work," he said.
Related Sites
Smallpox information from the CDC
Smallpox Information WHO
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