Opinion articles provide a forum for expression of views, and responses to previous statements, on a range of topical, emerging and controversial issues.
Affiliation
Poxvirus and Rabies Branch, Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Affiliation
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
Please follow our
guidelines for comments
and review our
competing interests policy.
Comments that do not conform to our guidelines will be promptly removed and the user account disabled.
The following must be avoided:
Remarks that could be interpreted as allegations of misconduct
Thank you for taking the time to flag this posting; we review flagged postings on a regular basis.
close
Nefarious reasons are really the only ones for maintaining Smallpox virus
Posted by Aves
on
18 May 2014 at 20:21 GMT
There are only nefarious reasons (germ warfare) to argue for continuing to maintain the Variola major and minor viruses. The Variola virus has not been used for protection against smallpox since variolation. The Vaccinia virus has been used for literally centuries to provide protective immunity against smallpox. The genomes of the various strains of Variola have been sequenced. Since the world population is no longer routinely vaccinated we are all at risk should this virus get out. It would take too long to ramp up production of enough vaccine to safeguard the population. There is nothing to be gained and humanity put at risk for no good reason if the virus is not destroyed.
