UN Inspectors Declare Russia's Smallpox Lab Safe

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A United Nations team of biosafety experts sent to inspect a Russian research laboratory containing live smallpox virus -- one of just two such labs in the world -- has declared the facility safe, according to a statement released Friday by the UN's World Health Organization (WHO).

"The team concluded that the facility can safely be used for work with the Variola virus (which causes smallpox) provided that current protocols are strictly applied," WHO reported. The inspectors were also "impressed" with the caliber of the staff at the facility, part of the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (Vector), located in the city of Koltsovos in the Novosibirsk Region of south-central Russia.

The facility is currently undergoing needed renovations, and will be reinspected when those renovations are completed, the team added.

Smallpox, which can spread through the air and kills about 30% of those infected, was declared eradicated worldwide by the WHO in 1980, the last known case having occurred in Somalia in 1977. The disease was eradicated in the US long before that, however, and regular vaccination of American children was discontinued in 1972.

Public concern over a possible bioterror release of live smallpox virus rose after the events of September 11, 2001. Experts have debated for years as to the need to destroy the two remaining known stockpiles of the virus -- one held at the Koltsovos facility, the other at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) in Atlanta, Georgia. Both facilities are now subject to inspection on a regular basis by WHO-appointed biosafety teams.