MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Terrorists may use smallpox as a weapon, Russian Deputy Health Minister and Chief Sanitation Doctor Gennady Onishchenko told a news conference at the Interfax main office on Friday.
The World Health Organization ruled in 1980 that smallpox had been defeated, which is why vaccination against it has ceased, he said.
As a result, 60% of Russians have not been vaccinated and are thus not immune to it, Onishchenko said.
Only Russia and the United States have stocks of smallpox viruses and vaccines, which have to be destroyed in March 2002 in line with a WHO decision. However, there are illegal stocks of the disease that can be used by terrorists in numerous countries, he said.
Furthermore, smallpox in monkeys, for example, can be contracted by humans, Onishchenko said.
"We face a choice between keeping this potential murderer and continuing studies of it and destroying the collections of viruses and becoming helpless in the face of this danger," he said.