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THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE 20 May 2005
RE: WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY DEBATES SMALLPOX VIRUS RESEARCH On Thursday, the 58th World Health Assembly (WHA) started a debate on whether the world's remaining smallpox virus stocks should be destroyed or whether research, including genetic engineering of the virus, should be allowed. Health Ministers and officials are at the annual gathering of the WHA (16 -25 May) held at the headquarters of the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Below is a report of the statements made by a number of countries. A decision is expected to be made on today. Countries that will take to the floor include South Africa, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada, Congo, USA, France, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. For more information on this
issue please see BIS (4 April) "Campaign to stop smallpox genetic
engineering" and BIS (9 May) "WHO DG questions smallpox recommendation" Chee Yoke Heong REF: Doc.TWN/Biosafety/2005/J Questions About Smallpox
Recommendations as WHA Discussions Begin (Geneva, 19 May) - On Thursday afternoon, the 58th World Health Assembly (WHA) took up the issue of destruction of smallpox virus stocks. Contrary to the title of the agenda item, the WHA is actually considering a set of recommendations from an advisory committee that would dramatically expand research on live smallpox virus, rather than "put a full stop at the end of the sentence of smallpox", as one delegation urged. The debate is scheduled to resume on Friday. Rather than being a "ten minute discussion", as WHO spokespeople predicted, seven countries made interventions today, and at least eleven more will speak on Friday. Russia led off on a sour note by endorsing more research and, especially, demanding the right to continue to utilize live smallpox virus in research on diagnostics, an area of research that WHO has concluded no longer requires live virus. China then weighed in with a detailed intervention. It underscored the public health risks of the virus escaping from the lab and called for strengthening WHO oversight of smallpox virus research. China noted that existing vaccines and control strategies could respond to emergencies and that the benefits of destroying remaining virus stocks are greater than those of continued research with the live virus. China called for the WHA to set a deadline for destruction of remaining virus stocks. India requested transfer of virus strains for vaccines (made from vaccinia, not smallpox virus) so that it can produce vaccines domestically. India was notably silent about the research recommendations, in contrast to prior expressions of support for more conservative proposals made by the advisory committee in past years. Iran took the floor reiterating China's observation that existing vaccines can be used in the event of a smallpox outbreak. Recalling recent laboratory accidents involving tularemia (USA) and SARS (in Taiwan, Singapore, and China), Iran argued that the risks posed by escape of smallpox virus were too high to justify continued research on the eradicated disease and strongly endorsed destruction of the remaining virus stocks. On the other hand, Australia expressed unabashed support for the controversial recommendations, including the genetic engineering of smallpox and wider distribution of smallpox DNA. On the issue of Russia's desire to continue to use live smallpox virus to develop diagnostics, Australia's answer was disturbingly ambiguous. It said that diagnostic tests could be validated with smallpox scabs from monkeys, a position that implicitly endorses US work injecting monkeys with large amounts of smallpox virus, research that is particularly dangerous. Australia did, however, share the WHO Director General's concern that smallpox genes should not be inserted into related poxviruses. Following a question from Greece, Japan urged rapid conclusion of ongoing research, and called for transparency. Japan said that the results should be "the property of all nations and human beings". With that, the meeting was adjourned until Friday. Countries that have so far requested to take the floor at the resumed session are South Africa, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada, Congo, USA, France, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. At a press conference on Wednesday, WHO officials dodged the issue of the dangerous recommendations, emphasizing that synthesis of full-length smallpox virus genomes and infectious smallpox viruses from smaller DNA fragments "remain strictly prohibited". According to NGOs, WHO's claims about this modest advance are overblown and easily misunderstood, because possession of smallpox virus, no matter its origin, is already restricted to two labs, one in Russia and one in the US. Smallpoxbiosafety.org will report on the WHA discussion on Friday, or when a decision is finalized.
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