Defying appeals from scores of nations, President Clinton has decided to retain Americas stock of the deadly smallpox virus, the White House said Thursday. Clinton concluded that the virus samples must be maintained to develop new drugs and vaccines to treat or prevent the disease, which was eradicated around the world in 1980 through an inoculation effort. The World Health Organization recommended in 1996 that the remaining known stocks held by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Russian State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology be destroyed by June 1999. White House National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said President Clinton had decided to seek to delay the destruction because of a possible natural resurgence of the disease or its use in a terrorist attack.
Smallpox causes pus-filled blisters all over the body and can be fatal.
Both issues are a concern. The United States and Russia are the only two nations with known smallpox stocks, but the administration fears it could have fallen into other hands, raising the threat of bioterrorism. Smallpox is highly contagious and kills about 20 percent of those afflicted. We don't know who else might have it. But the virus stores very easily in freezers so it could be elsewhere.