COMMENT by Lim Li Ching of the Third World Network: Civil society's work on this issue started because of US proposals to genetically engineer smallpox. While there was a World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution in 2007 that instructs the WHO Director General to ensure that research on smallpox should not involve genetic engineering, other risky research still continues even though no scientific justification remains. Terminating research with the live smallpox virus and setting a new date for destruction of the remaining stocks would also be an important step to ensuring that smallpox possession can be criminalized so that any future attempt to recreate the virus through biotechnology/synthetic biology methods would meet international condemnation and sanction.
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4 April 2011

Dear friends and colleagues

Please find [below] an open letter from Civil Society that we wish to circulate at the 64th World Health Assembly (WHA) (16-24 May 2011), and for which we are seeking organizational endorsements.

In 2005, civil society and many developing country governments questioned proposals from the US to genetically engineer the extremely dangerous smallpox virus. While smallpox has been eradicated from nature since 1977 and solely exists at WHO Repository Laboratories in the US and Russia, retention of the virus is temporarily authorized for research that is essential to global public health. Since 1996, there have been repeated (and unimplemented) WHA resolutions that the virus should be destroyed. Continued retention of smallpox virus no longer serves any essential public health purpose, and the possibility of its escape, amplified by the risks of unnecessary research, threatens us all.

The discussions culminated in 2007 with a WHA resolution that states that any research undertaken should not involve genetic engineering of the smallpox virus and that mandated the conduct by WHO of a 'major review' of smallpox virus research for presentation to the 64th WHA in 2011. The outcome of this major review, which found no compelling scientific reason to continue to retain the virus, provides clear justification to terminate research involving live smallpox virus and to schedule the prompt destruction of remaining smallpox virus stocks.

More background on the issue can be found at www.smallpoxbiosafety.org <http://www.smallpoxbiosafety.org>

Please feel free to circulate this letter widely to your networks.

*Please send all organizational endorsements to <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> <mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> by 15 April 2011*

Many thanks

Lim Li Ching (Third World Network) and Edward Hammond

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE 64th WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY ON DESTRUCTION OF SMALLPOX VIRUS STOCKS

[download letter in PDF format:
http://smallpoxbiosafety.org/openletter.pdf ]

The undersigned civil society organizations from around the world call on the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO), on the occasion of the 64th World Health Assembly, to complete WHO's historic Smallpox Eradication Programme by resolving to promptly destroy, once and for all, remaining stocks of smallpox (variola) virus.

After decades of remarkable international public health cooperation, in 1977 the scourge of smallpox was eliminated from the wild, leaving the last remaining samples of the virus in laboratories. These virus stocks come from all parts of the world. They were turned over to the WHO for safekeeping and are held in WHO Repositories located in Russia and the United States.

Nearly a quarter century ago, in 1986, the WHO’s experts first recommended that the viruses be destroyed, so that the risk of a future outbreak would be radically reduced. This recommendation was followed by World Health Assembly resolutions and more expert recommendations to destroy them. Yet these dangerous viruses continue to exist.

These viruses serve no essential public health purpose. Smallpox virus is not needed to respond to an outbreak. Smallpox vaccine is made from vaccinia, a related but far less deadly, virus. While effective diagnostics, vaccines and other means to contain an outbreak exist, for years the US and Russia have used specious scientific arguments to thinly veil their political determination to retain the virus.

The time has come for these stocks to be destroyed once and for all. This may only be accomplished through the will of the World Health Assembly.

Six years ago, civil society and governments united to turn back dangerous attempts to genetically engineer smallpox. That success led to a deeper examination of scientific needs to retain the virus stocks, culminating in a major review of smallpox virus research in 2010 that has been tabled this year. This major review, conducted by WHO experts in public health, concludes that no compelling scientific reason remains to retain the virus samples.

In May 2011, the 64th World Health Assembly will discuss the findings of the major review. While Russia and the United States may be expected to resist a firm decision to destroy the virus samples, they can no longer credibly claim any scientific basis for doing so. Continued retention of smallpox virus samples serves no essential public health purpose, and the possibility of their escape, amplified by the risks of unnecessary research, threatens all countries. Indeed, the last recorded smallpox case, in 1978, was the result of a laboratory accident.

Destroying smallpox virus stocks is not only the last step in the great achievement of eradicating the disease; it is the single most important thing that the international community can do to ensure that it never appears again. By making possession of the virus a crime against humanity, any future attempt to recreate the virus through biotechnology methods would meet international condemnation and sanction.

Hundreds of millions of people have been killed by smallpox in its terrible history. Well into the second half of the 20th Century, before WHO's Eradication Programme met success, millions of people died from smallpox every year and tens of millions were disfigured by the disease. In the absence of any essential public health reason to do so, no country can be allowed to retain stocks of such a horrible disease.

Our call to you, delegates to the 64th World Health Assembly, is for you to unequivocally terminate research with smallpox virus and to fix a prompt and irrevocable date for the destruction of the virus stocks. In doing so, the 64th World Health Assembly can reclaim the lost mantle of WHO's successful 1960s and 70s eradication effort, and set in motion the final chapter in humanity’s victory over this most dreadful disease.