The fate of the world's last stocks of the deadly smallpox virus is once again being debated. Last week, the executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO) began discussing what research remains to be done with the live virus. In May, WHO's governing body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), will decide whether to set a firm deadline for the stock's destruction. Contrary to some media reports that the executive board recommended keeping the stocks, no conclusions were reached, says a WHO spokesperson. Smallpox, or variola, killed hundreds of millions of people before it was declared eradicated in 1980. Only two labs still hold tightly secured stocks of the virus: VECTOR near Novosibirsk, Russia, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. A deadline for destroying these stocks first set by WHO in 1990 has been postponed several times after the United States and Russia argued that research should continue on vaccines, antiviral drugs, and diagnostics {Science, 25 January 2002, p. 598).
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