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Nature Medicine 5, 474 (1999)
doi:10.1038/8347

Smallpox stocks: new focus for research?

Alan Dove1

  1. New York

The US Institute of Medicine (IOM) has released a report asserting that stocks of live variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox, could be used to develop improved smallpox vaccines and antiviral agents. The report dovetails with a new initiative by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to beef up the nation's defenses against bioterrorism, but stands at odds with the current World Health Organization (WHO) plan to destroy existing stocks of variola.