End of a Menace

Photo by Sanofi Pasteur http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanofi-pasteur/5280407684/sizes/l/in/photostream/

In the late twentieth century, smallpox finally stepped down from its pedestal as being the most deadly disease for mankind. Since the kings of Egypt, smallpox has been ravaging the human population killing hundred of millions, but now we are the ones with the power. The smallpox virus exists in only two places in the world: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Russia. But why is the disease allowed to linger? Over the past few decades, acts of bioterrorism (the deliberate release of harmful of viruses, bacteria, or toxins into the public) have become a frightening reality and because of this, smallpox may have the opportunity to become a large threat once again. The only way to truly keep the people of the world safe from this virus is to eradicate it once and for all.

Since 1993 the World Health Organization has been pushing for the destruction of the disease, but clearly they have found no success in the matter. Each time the debate is brought up, both the US and Russian governments have pushed for an extension on the deadline of the destruction of the disease saying that there is still more research to be conducted for vaccines. There are two separate vaccines for the disease, but in very limited quantity so if an outbreak truly did occur, no one would be adequately fit to handle the situation.

As of right now, “the CDC claims that it has approximately 15 million doses available for immediate use” (Ajayi sec.6) in the US. Our government says that keeping the disease alive will end up protecting the American citizens, but last time I checked the US population was over 300 million. According to D.A. Henderson (the world renowned physician who helped lead the eradication of smallpox) “that due to damage, poor storage conditions and the passage of time, the amount of useful smallpox vaccine is actually closer to 6 or 7 million doses” (Ajayi sec.6). So in the best case scenario, only 5 percent of Americans could be protected leaving everyone else at the mercy of the virus. The situation is even worse when put on a global scale, with only about 90 million vaccines worldwide. Considering the fact that many of these doses could have been damaged over 20 years of being frozen, it can be said that the amount of vaccines is lower than 90 million to protect over 7 billion people. Knowing this, when an outbreak does occur many innocent lives will be lost. We are told that smallpox is kept alive in order to protect people, but as of right now the governments of the world are ill prepared and the smallpox virus has become to much of a threat to be kept alive. Experiencing another biterrorism scare thing our country needs right now.

A week after September 11th letters were sent to NBC, the New York Post, and several US senators all containing anthrax and resulted in a nation-wide panic. People become infected with anthrax when they come into contact with its spores, however, anthrax is not contagious making it relatively easy to contain. As mentioned before, smallpox is still considered a threat mainly because of its potential use in bioterrorism and if used as a weapon anthrax would not even come close to the damage smallpox could cause. Smallpox is easily transmittable between people leaping for person to person as they interact with each other. This allows the disease to spread rapidly making it almost impossible to keep contain. Also, once smallpox is contracted it cannot be cured by any means and has a higher mortality rate than anthrax at 30 percent (WHO Smallpox Facts Sheet sec 2). The point being if anthrax is seen as deadly what does that make smallpox the virus, the one that is clearly the bigger threat? Since we have the chance get rid of this disease, instead of wasting time and resources should we not just take the opportunity to be rid of it before there is another global pandemic?

With our government’s debt being higher than it has ever been, one would think that it would be a bad to time to spend money on a worthless product, however, “the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work” (Willman par.1). From this move it can be seen that the government still thinks that the smallpox virus is a threat so why not just destroy the disease? The administration is spending money that the country does not have on a product that is not even guaranteed to be effective. The most logical move would be to get rid of smallpox. It is something that can be easily done, our government can stop wasting money, and the world can finally be at peace since the greatest virus in our history will be gone forever.

Although we have pushed smallpox to the brink of its destruction, it is still finding ways to negatively affect humanity. Smallpox has to be dealt with and the most logical and effective way to do this and to destroy smallpox.




Works Cited:


Ajayi, Toyin Stanford Journal of International Relations. 24 May 2006. 23 Feb. 2012 <http://www.stanford.edu/group/sjir/3.2.02_ajayi.html>.
William, David. "Cost, Need Questioned in $433-million Smallpox Drug Deal." Los Angeles Times 13 Nov. 2011: 1. Print.
World Health Organization. 2001. 23 Feb. 2012 <http://www.who.int/topics/en/>.