Reaffirmed that the remaining stock of smallpox virus should be destroyed
The Health Assembly strongly reaffirmed the decision of previous Assemblies that the remaining stock of smallpox (variola) virus should be destroyed when crucial research based on the virus has been completed. The state of variola virus research will be reviewed at the 67th World Health Assembly in 2014 and in light of that, determining a date for destruction of the remaining virus stocks will be discussed.
Bioethicists disagree about whether or not to destroy the virus. As long as it survives, the risk of its release - either accidental or deliberate - will persist. If it is destroyed, the best opportunity to derive future insights into its, and other disease organisms', biology may be forgone forever. In the meantime, the virus that has taken about half a billion lives in recent history will continue to hang, like the Sword of Damocles, over the future health of humanity.