WHO begins stockpiling smallpox vaccine
Could take three years to build 200 million dose reserve
Updated: 2:30 p.m. ET Jan. 19, 2005GENEVA - Work has started on building a
200
million-dose stockpile of smallpox vaccines but it could take up to three
years
to complete, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Wednesday.

The Group of Seven industrialized nations agreed last month to set up a
global
"vaccine bank" in case of a germ attack by terrorists.

The WHO will double its emergency reserve of smallpox vaccines to 5
million
doses, while individual member countries will assemble the rest.

"It is clear that we will have some stocks in a few months, but it would
take
two to three years to set up the whole stockpile," Daniel Lavanchy,
smallpox
project leader at the WHO's alert and response office, told Reuters.

Smallpox, a highly contagious disease with no cure, was declared wiped out
in
1979. But there are fears militant groups, such as al Qaeda, could get
hold of
the virus.

Several hundred thousand doses, along with needles for administering the
vaccine, are expected to be delivered to the Geneva-based WHO in the next
few
months.

"We are progressing," Lavanchy said.

Deterrent against attack
Brazil and India said at a meeting of the WHO executive board on Wednesday
that
they could help manufacture the vaccines as long as they got financial
assistance.

"Having such a (vaccine) reserve could also serve as a global deterrent
against use of smallpox virus in a biological attack," the WHO said in a
report to the meeting.

Smallpox is fatal in up to 30 percent of cases.

Health ministers from the G7 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan
and the United States -- also agreed last month to set up a bioterrorism
crisis
center to marshal a global response to germ warfare attacks.

At the time, the United States earmarked 80 million doses of smallpox
vaccine
for the WHO-run bank. Britain, France, Germany and Canada have also made
pledges.

"Developed countries are ... concerned that other countries don't have the
means to protect their populations and stem an epidemic," Lavanchy said.

WHO begins stockpiling smallpox vaccine