Health help? ** 10 bonus points**?!


Question: Health help.? ** 10 bonus points**.?
Smallpox disease:

The only living smallpox virus knows today lives in labratories:

1. Why hasnt it been destroyed.?
2. What is being done with it.?
3. Has the virus ever escaped.? if so, what happened.?


PLEASE HELP ASAP! Health Question & Answer


Answers:
Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. The variola virus no longer exists outside of a few laboratories around the world. The official virus repositories are at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga, and the Institute of Viral Preparations in Moscow, Russia. Viral stocks also exist at the Russian State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo. The WHO Committee on Orthopoxvirus Infections has proposed multiple dates for destruction of the remaining viral stocks, only to be pushed back under pressure from various factions.

Various sources from the former Soviet Union allege that the Russian military had pursued and currently pursues an active biological warfare program. For instance, the Russian government confirmed a suspected outbreak from an accidental release of aerosolized anthrax near a military microbiology laboratory in 1992. In 1980, the Soviet Union commenced large-scale production of the smallpox virus and genetic recombination of strains that are more virulent. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, concern exists that this expertise may be used in other countries. The extent of smallpox stockpiles in other countries is unknown but may be significant since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Christopher J Hogan, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital

Christopher J Hogan is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Emergency Physicians

Coauthor(s): Fred Harchelroad, MD, FACMT, Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Director of Medical Toxicology, Department of Emergency Medicine, Associate Professor, Allegheny General Hospital

______________________________________...

Though the disease was eradicated over 20 years ago, several samples of the live virus were preserved, mainly for research purposes. Today the only verified repositories of the virus are held in secure laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and the State Center for Research on Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Russia. However, it is believed that clandestine stocks of smallpox exist in 10 or more other countries.

The virus hasn't "escaped' so far as we know.
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