UN wants ban on creation of smallpox virus in labs

May 18 2005

Health officials around the world are being urged by United Nations experts to ban scientists from making the deadly smallpox virus in laboratories for fear it could fall into terrorist hands.

Smallpox, which is one of the deadliest diseases known, was officially eradicated in 1979 and all known samples either destroyed or sent to World Health Organization (WHO)-controlled centers in Russia and the United States, where research on vaccines continues.

But experts now fear that advances in genetic technology could mean scientists will soon be able to rebuild the virus from scratch. Smallpox is regarded as one of the most potentially lethal weapons of biological warfare.

A panel of WHO smallpox experts feel that the 192 countries meeting at an annual U.N. health summit in Geneva should agree to prohibit in-vitro synthesis of smallpox in response to the threat.

Daniel Lavanchy, smallpox expert at the WHO, says the committee is advising the WHO to specifically prohibit the synthesis of the smallpox virus if not now then in a few years time.

In 2002,a debate about "kitchen bio-warfare bugs", was ignited after U.S. scientists were able to fabricate the relatively simple polio virus in the laboratory.

Lavanchy said the smallpox virus has a longer genetic sequence, putting it out of reach of rogue scientists for now, but with the speed at which technology is moving, it is not known what will happen in 10 years.

Even though it is calling for a ban on complete sequencing of smallpox, the panel wants the World Health Assembly, the WHO's decision-taking body, to allow scientists to create small segments of the virus for use in research, and it will propose that it again delay implementing a 1998 call to destroy the two remaining stockpiles, held in Russia and the United States.

Mike Ryan, WHO action and response director, says that bio-terror fears and concerns that scientists would be unable to react in time to a surprise smallpox outbreak, persuaded the panel to keep the last two known smallpox stocks.

He says that there is no question that the emergence of the bio-weapon threat has raised concerns about smallpox, and though all but two WHO states say their smallpox stockpiles have been destroyed, it would be dangerous to assume there is none left anywhere.