Smallpox

Smallpox virus Sample Should destroyed or not is the Question of the day

Smallpox is on the chopping block on the record.

But whether it will actually be destroyed, remains to be seen. The World Health Assembly decided the samples should be destroyed in 1996, but since then the debate has caused them to continue to exist, according to PopSci.

In May the World Health Organization will meet to decide whether  the remaining samples of the disease should destroyed or not, according to LiveScience. Discussions was began in January.

There are only two remaining samples left in the world, one at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and another at a Russian facility in Siberia. The delay in destruction of the samples has been led by the U.S. and Russia, who argue that they could be used in order to create new treatments in the future.

Many developing countries, however, have pushed for abolition of the disease as it would be harder to put down were it to resurface within their borders, wrote PopSci. Some also fear that other, secret, samples may exist, and destroying the known samples could be dangerous.

The last natural case of smallpox occurred in 1977 in Somalia, but prior to that the disease ravaged mankind for centuries. According to LiveScience, about one-third of all those ever infected with the disease have died.