Smallpox a scourge of the past, but virus still a threat, says WHO
If viruses had minds, variola, the smallpox virus, would be going through agony. Since 1980, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox eradicated, the virus has been languishing on the death rows of two high-security containment centers, one in Moscow, the other in Atlanta. Two previous dates - 1987 (unofficial) and 1993 (official) - set by WHO expert committees for destruction of the 600 samples of the virus stocked in these centres have come and gone. Now a third - 30 June this year - also looks to become a dead letter.
The WHO's executive board was expected to ratify the date for the destruction of smallpox virus samples at its two-week meeting in January. But as the delegates sat down to discuss the issue, chairman Jesus Kumate of Mexico requested "that discussion of this matter be postponed until a later date.…
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