WHO Recommends Smallpox Virus Alteration

[Guest guest]

Has anyone seen this yet, or am I like days late??? I just cannot

believe this!

Sylvia

http://story.news./news?

tmpl=story & cid=514 & e=5 & u=/ap/20041112/ap_on_he_me/who_smallpox

WHO Recommends Smallpox Virus Alteration

By PAUL ELIAS, AP Biotechnology Writer

An influential World Health Organization (news - web sites)

committee is sending shock waves through the scientific community

with its recommendation that researchers be permitted to conduct

genetic-engineering experiments with the smallpox virus.

The idea is to be able to better combat a disease that is considered

a leading bioterror threat though it was publicly eradicated 25

years ago.

The WHO had previously opposed such work for fear that a " superbug "

might emerge. Because the disease is so deadly, the WHO has even at

times recommended destroying the world's two known smallpox

stockpiles, located in secure labs at the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (news - web sites) in Atlanta and in the

former Soviet Union