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April 9, 2001
“India: US, Russia Must Destroy Smallpox Stocks” Reuters
Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com)
(04/06/01); Kumar, Sanjay
Ever since smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980,
variola virus specimens have been stored in laboratories at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the Russian State Research Center
for Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo.
Although several World Health Organization (WHO) committees have recommended
the destruction of the virus stocks, the World Health Assemblies recommended in
1999 that the samples be maintained until 2002 for research purposes. According to Kalyan Banerjee, former
director of India’s National Institute of Virology and a member of the WHO’s
Expert Committee on Orthopox Viruses, that time period may be extended past
2002. While some Indian health and
security officials say the United States and Russia are responsible for
thwarting efforts to destroy the remaining smallpox virus stocks, Dr. D.
Henderson—former head of the WHO’s Smallpox Eradication Program and director of
the Center for Civilian Biodefense at Johns Hopkins University—notes experts’ concerns
that smallpox could be used as a biological weapon and that most people in the
world have not been vaccinated against the deadly disease.
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