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WHO moves to approve limited research on smallpox

The World Health Organization (WHO) Friday moved closer to approving an experiment to manipulate the genes of the smallpox virus for the first time since the disease was eradicated from the world 25 years ago.

The experiment, one of several proposals about smallpox that advanced Friday, is intended to speed the development of tests to detect the virus and of drugs that could treat it, officials said. The action was prompted in part by concerns that the virus could be reintroduced to the public, either accidentally or through terrorism.

A spokesman said the agency's governing body approved the experiment "in principle." The process, he said, would insert a so-called marker gene into the virus that would glow under fluorescent light when the virus was exposed to an ineffective drug. The technique is widely used in virology to aid in rapidly distinguishing between effective and ineffective drugs.

The governing body, known as the World Health Assembly, also said it favored the idea of sending small fragments of the smallpox virus to other laboratories to try to develop better diagnostic tests for the virus.

But before any experiments proceed, the assembly said, researchers must provide details about the experiments and planned security precautions.

The assembly also approved the WHO's work to create a global reserve of 33.5 million doses of vaccine to prevent smallpox, which killed a fourth of those infected, if the virus is somehow reintroduced.
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