Do Not Destroy Last Remaining Stocks of Smallpox

Keeping the deadly virus in cold storage an insurance policy on the future

By Derek Handova

The last remaining stockpiles of the smallpox virus should not be destroyed because studying its genetic structure can help avoid future epidemics and cure other diseases. Photo credit: Foter / Public domain

While on the face it of it, it may seem to make sense to destroy the last remaining stocks of the smallpox virus that exist in tightly controlled laboratories around the world, nothing could be further from the truth. Understandably, there is much fear among the emerging world population and their reactionary political representatives in letting one of the foremost scourges of disease in modern history survive into the 21st century.

But we may need smallpox in the future. History should be our guide. The fact is that leveraging the genetic properties of a related disease called cowpox led the first doctor to seriously investigate cross-immunization, Edward Jenner, to discover the initial vaccine against smallpox.

Edward Jenner, sometimes known as the “father of immunology,” proved the theory of immunization worked by using lymph fluid from someone with cowpox to inoculate another person against the more deadly but related disease smallpox. Photo credit: PAHO/WHO / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

With the emergence of MERS, SARS and other virulent contagious viruses, who knows what will come next. The next super contagion could be a relative of smallpox. And if we have destroyed all the remaining genetic heritage of smallpox, the world will be in a very bad place.

Even if a mad scientist or terrorists made a genetically engineered, more lethal form of smallpox, we would still need the genetic stock that’s in storage to be able to come up with a viable antidote or vaccine.

In fact, as recently as 2011, both the U.S. and Russia argued that you need to retain smallpox strains to combat bioterrorism. As an unnamed U.S. official familiar with the matter said:

Our position is that we need to have the virus collections maintained for the foreseeable future.

Destroying smallpox is a forever decision. Once it’s done, it cannot be undone. As deadly as smallpox is, we should always remember the words of Al Pacino playing Michael Corleone in the The Godfather Part II:

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

http://youtu.be/YscgEcd_s-s

Knowing how to combat smallpox and having access to its DNA in a controlled environment is like an insurance policy for the future. We hope to never have to use it. But knowing it’s there in the background will allow all of us concerned about such matters to sleep more soundly at night.