WHO Debates Destroying Remaining Smallpox Virus Vials in United States and Russia

The United States and Russia are the only two countries with remaining stockpiles of the smallpox virus, and since the disease was eradicated worldwide in 1979, the WHO is considering destroying the last of the disease's remnants.

Smallpox is a contagious disease caused by the Variola virus and was feared worldwide before its eradication. Its last known natural case occurred in Somalia back in 1977 and there was one accidental case due to a laboratory incident in England in 1978. Since then, there have been no cases documented.

Perhaps to avoid a serious accident, the World Health Organization is debating whether or not to destroy vials of the frozen virus that was previously used for research. This news could be in response to the Pasteur Institute in Paris "losing" over 2,000 vials of fragments of the SARS virus last month. Although the lost vials do not necessarily pose a threat, accidents can happen and there's no use in keeping a disease that has been eliminated for over 30 years.

"The hazard is, could it ever by accident or by evil design leave those two containments and actually be introduced into the population again and spread?" said Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in this ABC News article. "Since this is awful, let's incinerate it and get rid of it."

There is still no cure for the disease, which makes it sensible to destroy the last of it. Additionally, medicine has drastically advanced over the years, so in the (rare) event a case of smallpox pops up after the vials are destroyed, doctors and scientists could easily collect the patient's specimen and develop a newer vaccine (since children aren't even vaccinated for the disease anymore). Dr. Schaffner says they can even begin working on vaccines and treatments right now if they wanted to.

Nonetheless, the World Health Assembly plans to meet at the end of the month in Switzerland to arrive at a decision for the remaining smallpox samples.