Task 6- Smallpox eradicated, why still fear?

There is still some fear about an epidemic of smallpox that could arise. If the disease has been eradicated then how is there still a chance of the smallpox disease getting back from eradication? The CDC states that ‘Smallpox is caused by the variola virus that emerged in human populations thousands of years ago. Except for laboratory stockpiles, the variola virus has been eliminated. However, in the aftermath of the events of September and October, 2001, there is heightened concern that the variola virus might be used as an agent of bioterrorism. For this reason, the U.S. government is taking precautions for dealing with a smallpox outbreak’.

People are worried that the disease will come back from a bioweapon terrorist attack. So to prepare for the event the smallpox virus is still in laboratories so vaccinations can still be produced in such an event of a bioweapon attack.

However, some say that there are much bigger and worse illnesses/diseases that could be spread by a bioweapon attack so why would the attackers pick smallpox? There has been an ongoing debate for many years about should the last remaining stocks of smallpox be destroyed or kept. There has been many times when the destruction of the stocks should have gone ahead but a meeting at the World Health Assembly pushed the date back in order for more tests and research to be carried out.

Our task was to research the for and against argument for the destruction of small pox and prepare for a discussion based on the following question:

*One of the longest and most contentious international policy debates has swirled around the question of whether to destroy the last known stocks of the smallpox (Variola) virus, which are preserved at two World Health Organization (WHO)- authorized repositories in Russia and the United States. Although smallpox was eradicated from nature more than three decades ago, concerns surfaced in the early 1990’s that a few countries might have retained undeclared samples of the virus for biological warfare purposes. Because a smallpox outbreak would be a global public health emergency of major proportions, in 1999 the WHO approved a research program at the two authorized repositories to develop improved medical defences against the disease.*

Bibliography

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . (2007). Smallpox Overview. Available: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.asp.  Last accessed 17th April 2013.