Experts debate pros and cons of keeping smallpox virus stocks

March 15, 1999
Web posted at: 11:19 p.m. EST (0419 GMT)

In this story: Bio-terrorism threat? Taming a deadly plague RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An expert panel of scientists, physicians and researchers has recommended that the United States keep its stock of the smallpox virus, despite a World Health Organization call to eradicate remaining samples of the virus by June.

The panel was convened by various federal agencies, including the National Security Council, the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services, to weigh the scientific pros and cons of eliminating U.S stocks of the smallpox virus.

The Clinton administration is expected to formally decide by May whether to support the World Health Organization recommendation to destroy all global stocks by June 30.

Bio-terrorism threat?

"The most compelling need for long-term retention of live variola (smallpox) virus would be for the development of antiviral agents or novel vaccines to protect against a reemergence of smallpox due to accidental or the intentional release of variola virus," the panel concluded.

The United States and Russia are the only countries to officially have stocks of the virus. The U.S. samples are kept in a laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

There have been worldwide calls to eliminate remaining stocks of the virus. But many experts fear secret caches of smallpox still remain undetected and could be used by so-called "rogue" nations or by terrorist groups.

Ken Alibek, a former Soviet research official who defected to the United States in 1992, testified before Congress last May that the virus may have been distributed to other spots in Russia.

"This is a very contagious and lethal disease. It has wiped out major portions of the human population in various junctures of history," said bio-terrorism expert Amy Smithson.

"It is not the kind of stuff one wants released either as a weapon or during an accident because it spreads so quickly," she added.

Taming a deadly plague

The first written record of smallpox dates back to 1122 B.C. in China. It was one of the world's most deadly plagues -- killing 20 percent of its victims -- until a worldwide inoculation effort by the WHO eradicated the virus by 1977.

Most people under 30 have never been inoculated for smallpox and remaining vaccinations stocks could treat only 6 million people, the panel reported.

It also said that studies of live smallpox virus continue to help scientists better understand how the organism attacks the immune system and how the body responds.

However, the panel did acknowledge the keeping live specimens is dangerous. Laboratory stocks of smallpox were the source of two cases reported in England in 1978.

"The risks ... might well outweigh the benefits," the report said. "If they are retained, however, they could offer the possibility of scientific advances that could not be otherwise achieved."

Correspondent Carl Rochelle and the Associated Press contributed to this report.