The World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization met in their annual meeting, May 19-24, 2014. One of the items on the agenda was to consider the destruction date of smallpox which had been agreed by the WHO members. Some experts recommend destruction while other experts recommend that more research with live virus is important to complete the research that is needed. The U.S. advocated a five year delay, and the WHA agreed to a three year delay to discuss the destruction date. Two advisory committees gave opposing recommendations and the WHA recommended the formation of a new advisory committee to consider the implications of new biotechnologies that can clone smallpox virus.
In a paragraph 21 tucked in the middle of the resolution which addressed these actions, WHA67.37, the note was made that "Destruction of Cloned Variola Virus DNA in South Africa. 21. In January 2014, the cloned variola virus DNA fragments that had been stored in South Africa were destroyed in the presence of witnesses, following the updated certification procedure set out in the Report of the Meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Orthopoxvirus Infections in 1994." This was footnoted by a document WHO/CDS/BVI/94.3 which though noted as unpublished was available online and described the WHO Collaborating Centers for Smallpox project to sequence the smallpox virus strains. Apparently, the destruction of these DNA fragments were those registered with this project. Registration of these DNA fragments and sequences is required in this document but there is no indication how many of these exist.
No comments:
Post a Comment