A report of the second meeting of the New Defence Agenda’s Bioterrorism Reporting Group Countering Bioterrorism: With the Support of

Smallpox is a disease of the past. Let’s keep it that way. How can smallpox, a disease declared eradicated more than 20 years ago, still pose a threat today? Although the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in 1980, it is suspected that the virus is held outside official repositories and, as such, could be used by bioterrorists. As a safeguard, governments around the world are establishing emergency-use stockpiles of smallpox vaccines with Acambis ’ investigational smallpox vaccine. The US Government, for instance, is putting in place a stockpile sufficient to provide a dose for every man, woman and child in the US