WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- 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 of the disease.
"I have this week communicated that decision to the director of the World Health Organization," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson 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 terrorist organizations such as the Osama bin Laden's extremist group al Qaida may 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," Thompson 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 like 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.
Late Friday, CNN reported that Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., received suspicious mail which was seized by the FBI for testing.
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 her 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," Thompson said. "Likewise, we have vigorous research underway 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 existing 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.
