- GENEVA - Acting on fears
of bioterrorism, the World Health Organization on Saturday formally reversed
a long-standing order for the destruction of all smallpox virus stocks,
recommending instead that they be retained for research into new vaccines
or treatment.
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- The World Health Assembly, the U.N. health agency's top
decision -making body, decided to back an earlier recommendation by WHO
Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland to drop a 2002 deadline for destroying
the virus, held at top security laboratories in the United States and Russia.
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- In January, the WHO's 32-member Executive Board approved
Brundtland's policy. Late Friday, a World Health Assembly committee representing
all member nations also backed the move.
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- Under the ruling, no new target has been set for destroying
the stocks, which are held at two secure laboratories at the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a similar Russian facility
in Siberia. The virus stocks will instead be retained for research into
new vaccines or treatment for smallpox. The World Health Assembly will
receive updates on the research at its annual meetings.
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- U.S. assistant surgeon general Kenneth Bernard told the
assembly that smallpox research was necessary because the "events
of Sept. 11 have underscored the extent that terrorists are willing to
go to."
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- "In recent years, experts have come to see smallpox
as a No. 1 deadly threat," and the danger of deliberate use was "small
but growing," he said. "We regard the potential release of smallpox
as a critical national security issue, not only for us but for the entire
world."
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- Research also would help people suffering from HIV/AIDS,
whose weakened immune systems could not stand existing smallpox vaccines,
he added.
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- The assembly said that full research results should be
made available to all WHO member nations. WHO officials said that decision
came after developing countries on the assembly said they feared rich nations
would keep the results to themselves.
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- Smallpox used to kill 3 million to 4 million people per
year and left millions more hideously scarred and blind. It was declared
eradicated in 1979 after a massive WHO-spearheaded campaign, and the virus
samples were placed in the U.S. and Russian laboratories.
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- In 1996, WHO set a target of mid-1999 for destruction
of the virus. But after U.S. and Russian resistance, it extended the deadline
to the end of this year.
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- China previously had called for the destruction of the
stocks, claiming their very existence presented an enormous risk to the
world. But the Chinese delegation agreed to drop the deadline, provided
the research was completed as soon as possible and a new date was set for
destruction at a later meeting of the assembly.
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- Although international teams carry out regular checks
of the virus storage facilities to ensure maximum security standards, there
have been long-standing fears that samples may have found their way into
the hands of nations including North Korea or Iraq.
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- Russian officials, however, told the assembly that the
stocks in their laboratory were completely secure and dismissed the idea
that virus samples could be stolen.
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- Copyright © 2002 Nando Media
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- http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/405988p-3233947c.html
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