Remember the smallpox virus alive ..
CDC / Fred Murphy
the smallpox virus in the death row for decades, was given another stay of execution. The World Health Assembly (WHA), an annual meeting of health ministers in Geneva today decided to postpone the debate on the destruction of the remaining virus stocks until 2014.
opposition against the maintenance of the pathogen has been built in recent years, but the United States, which is still conducting research with the virus, has lobbied hard in recent months to keep the remaining smallpox stocks and allow further education. Again, he managed to avoid a firm deadline.
"In my opinion, this is regrettable, but perhaps not surprising," given the past 2 decades, said Donald Henderson, who led the global campaign to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s . "There is just a determination to keep the virus," said Henderson, currently a researcher in residence at the Center for biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh medical Center in Pennsylvania.
After the world was officially declared free of smallpox in 1980, countries have destroyed their stockpiles of smallpox or sent to two laboratories authorized to keep them, one in the United States and Russia. Since then, there has been a debate between self -called destructionists, who argue that the world will be safer with the latest virus disappeared, and so-called retentionist, who argue that more research on vaccines, therapies and diagnostics is necessary because bioterrorist might one day get their hands stashes of hidden virus.
So far retentionist won. The deadlines for destruction have been postponed several times since the early 190s, while a wide through research program. The issue was on the agenda this year after two panels had completed a review of research carried out to date and the need to keep the virus ( Science , 28 January, p. 389).
In recent weeks, the United States engaged in "a lot of arm twisting" to get other countries for its part, says specialist Jonathan Tucker biosecurity of the Federation of American Scientists in Washington DC Health and Human services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius drove home the importance of the issue to the US during a last week press conference in Geneva.
However, a US resolution supported by Russia to allow the search to continue for at least five years longer met considerable opposition yesterday when the issue was discussed in a WHA committee says Edward Hammond an activist for the destruction that followed closely the discussions and reported on them through his
supply
But nothing set against a resolution-for a time on the table, and many other countries, including Canada, Australia, and those of European Union, supported the US-Russian position. (Hammond also co-wrote a long article on the deliberations.)
the Chairman of the Committee decided to convene a working group of 50 countries informal try to forge a consensus behind closed doors yesterday afternoon. When this attempt failed, the issue came to the full committee, which eventually supported a Swiss proposal to postpone the issue until 2014 WHA.
"Three years is a reasonable period of time in terms of the next review," the head of the US delegation to the meeting was quoted as saying today by the Associated Press. "Obviously during this period, we expect there will be significant progress in research on antivirals and vaccines and diagnostics."
Hammond, who is a consultant to a group of pressure Malaysia-based Third World Network called, says he is "quite happy" with the result as well. the United States has not obtained a new explicit mandate for research, he says, and he has not get the stay of 5 years, he was looking for. in addition, wHO Director-General Margaret Chan said today that it will keep up the new Advisory Group of independent experts (AGIES), which indicated the year last that there was no need to keep the virus much longer. AGIES said Tucker, will provide a "counterweight" against the wHO Advisory Committee on variola virus Research, which has more of smallpox among virologists its members and has long been on the side of more research.
But Henderson is disappointed. The review showed that AGIES recent research has already led to a new generation smallpox vaccine safer, two antiviral compounds, the most important objectives of the research program. "What do they want?" Henderson said. "The reason does not prevail."
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