Smallpox used to be one of the deadliest diseases on the planet. It killed about one third of the people it infected. Now it has been dormant since 1978, which was when the last known case of the disease was diagnosed in Britain. The U.N. is debating whether or not stockpiles of the disease being kept in the U.S. and Russia should be kept for another five years or destroyed.
The World Health Organization has been asked to make the final decisions, but the U.S. is proposing that the stockpiles be kept so that, in the case of an accidental, or deliberate, re-emergence of the deadly disease a vaccine could be made.
U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sibelius said that the U.S. is “committed to the eventual destruction” of the stockpiles but still fears that without the virus available to create a vaccine the world would be vulnerable. An aide to Sibelius, Bill Hall, later assured the AP that the United States would not act unilaterally, but would await the outcome of the U.N. vote on its proposal in the Geneva-based assembly.
Many other countries argue that the safest course is to destroy the remaining stockpiles, though WHO is still waiting on whether it will recommend destroying the virus this year or allowing for more research time to finish developing a third vaccine (there are already two) and a variety of experimental drugs in the works that would treat but not cure the disease.
