US. Won't Destroy Smallpox

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http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/11/16/193250.shtml

US. Won't Destroy Smallpox

NewsMax.com Wires

Saturday, Nov. 17, 2001

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration said Friday it would not destroy the

country's remaining stores of smallpox virus until adequate vaccines and

treatments are available to counter possible future outbreaks.

" I have this week communicated that decision to the director of the World

Health Organization, " U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy

said.

The move reflects a reversal in U.S. policy. Previous administrations sought

to eradicate the last vestiges of the virus, which has been kept in a secure

vault at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The United States halted vaccinations for smallpox in 1972. The smallpox

virus was eradicated from the world's general population in 1977, with the

United States and Russia retaining the only known samples of the pathogen.

Government and public health officials fear that nations such as Iraq and

North Korea and terrorist organizations such as the Osama bin Laden's

extremist group al-Qaeda might have acquired the virus.

" Events of the last two months make all too clear that if smallpox virus

fell into the wrong hands, it might be deliberately unleashed, "

said. " While the chance of release of smallpox remains small, it is

nonetheless real, and we must be prepared to combat it. "

Concern increased over biological pathogens such as smallpox after the Sept.

11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and the subsequent series of

anthrax-tainted letters sent to news organizations and government offices,

infecting 17 people. Four died of the more serious inhalation form of the

disease.

On Friday, the FBI said Sen. Leahy, D-Vt., received suspicious mail

tainted with anthrax.

The smallpox virus is considered one of the most dangerous potential

biological weapons because of its easy transmission. The mortality rate of

smallpox infection victims is approximately 30 percent, and those patients

who recover frequently have disfiguring scars, said Carole Heilman, director

of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the National

Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., in testimony

before the House Government Reform Committee.

The United States has 15 million doses of smallpox vaccine, which Heilman

says would not be sufficient to respond to a national smallpox epidemic.

President Bush has said he wants to boost U.S. stockpiles to 300 million

doses of vaccine within two years.

" I have already launched a process for rapid new production of smallpox

vaccine, " said. " Likewise, we have vigorous research under way to

develop new diagnostic and treatment capabilities, as well as the next

generation of smallpox vaccines. "

Last year, the NIAID initiated a study of whether the stores of vaccine

could be expanded through dilution. Results will provide data that will

guide the use of the remaining stockpile of smallpox vaccine if needed to

protect the general population, Heilman told the committee.

Heilman also told the committee that NIAID was accelerating efforts to

identify antiviral drugs that could be effective in treating smallpox and

related viruses. One such agent is an antiviral called cidofovir, approved

by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating certain AIDS-related

viral infections. The National Institutes of Health has been developing a

protocol that would allow cidofovir to be used in emergency situations for

the treatment of smallpox.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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