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WHO committee asks to resurrect smallpox for vaccine development

Emergency Management Alert, April 26, 2005

The World Health Assembly's (WHA) Variola Advisory Committee (VAC) is seeking permission to resurrect smallpox, reports the New Straits Times in Malaysia. The VAC believes genetic modification of the deadly virus can help accelerate the development of vaccines necessary in the event of an outbreak.

The world health body eliminated the disease, which is caused by the Variola virus, as part of a 10-year, $300 million campaign in the 1990s. There are only two known samples remaining in the world-located at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and the Russian State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo in Russia. Smallpox kills, maims, blinds, and scars its victims.

The WHA, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, will respond to the request for genetic modification at its 55th meeting in Geneva on May 13.

There are numerous opponents of the proposal, including many non-governmental organizations, which believe the virus-which killed an estimated 300 million in the 20th century-should be destroyed entirely unless it's used for the development of biological weapons.

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