Smallpox is just a scary premise. Theoretically it is gone, except that two cultures of smallpox were maintained (paranoia and all), one in the United States, and one in the former Soviet Union. Neither of these vials makes me comfortable. I don't trust the current US not to develop biological weapons with it, and I don't trust that the former Soviet Union didn't sell it to say... South Korea? in times of economic hardship. I pick on South Korea since it was discovered in 2002 that the entirety of their military was immunized against smallpox, as was much of their population. Ongoing scientific research my ass (in regards to all mentioned).
Smallpox is also a little bit scandalous. To immunize humans against smallpox means we are also immunized against a variety of other pox conditions, one of these is monkeypox. Now during the worldwide immunizations from 1958 to 1979 that cost $300 million USD that resulted in a successful herd immunity (this is rarely accomplished successfully), the World Health Organization reached Africa and found that they did not have widespread smallpox and so did not immunize most of Africa. Africa's underdeveloped nature actually assisted them in avoiding widespread outbrealks. What is sad about this is that much of Africa was being afflicted with related conditions like monkeypox, and the WHO decided not to continue immunization protocols since smallpox was their target, and it was other pox viruses in third world countries still existed. When I learned about this in 1998, I was immediately concerned that the short-sightedness, paired with what could be interpreted as a socioeconomic and/or racial bias, would result in outbreaks in other regions of the world. It is impossible to consider Africa a seperate continent in the viral sense. In 2003 my concerns became real as outbreaks of Monkeypox occurred in the United States. Yes, it took 30 years (though only 6 years after my supposition), but that doesn't make my paranoid-sounding essays any less accurate.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-13 03:26 pm (UTC)Smallpox is also a little bit scandalous. To immunize humans against smallpox means we are also immunized against a variety of other pox conditions, one of these is monkeypox. Now during the worldwide immunizations from 1958 to 1979 that cost $300 million USD that resulted in a successful herd immunity (this is rarely accomplished successfully), the World Health Organization reached Africa and found that they did not have widespread smallpox and so did not immunize most of Africa. Africa's underdeveloped nature actually assisted them in avoiding widespread outbrealks. What is sad about this is that much of Africa was being afflicted with related conditions like monkeypox, and the WHO decided not to continue immunization protocols since smallpox was their target, and it was other pox viruses in third world countries still existed. When I learned about this in 1998, I was immediately concerned that the short-sightedness, paired with what could be interpreted as a socioeconomic and/or racial bias, would result in outbreaks in other regions of the world. It is impossible to consider Africa a seperate continent in the viral sense. In 2003 my concerns became real as outbreaks of Monkeypox occurred in the United States. Yes, it took 30 years (though only 6 years after my supposition), but that doesn't make my paranoid-sounding essays any less accurate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeypox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
My recommendation to immunize everyone is entirely based on my particular level of paranoia of biological warfare and global community on that day.