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Programme to facilitate Variola virus research

The World Health Assembly has passed resolutions (WHA52.10) (WHA 55.15) authorizing temporary retention of the existing stocks of Variola virus for the purpose of further essential research. The stocks are held in 2 locations only: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States and the Russian State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology, Koltsovo, Novosibirsk Region, Russian Federation.

The programme of research is overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research, composed of members from all WHO regions and advised by some 10 scientific academic experts from such areas as public health, fundamental applied research and regulatory agencies. Reports of the first three meetings have been submitted to the World Health Assembly:

• WHO Recommendations concerning the distribution, handling and synthesis of Variola virus DNA
  pdf, 25kb
  May 2008
  
  

Meetings

• WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research
  Report of meetings (1-13)

• Smallpox eradication: destruction of variola virus stocks
  pdf, 157kb
  Report by the WHO Secretariat for 61st Session of the WHO World Health Assembly, April 2008
• Smallpox eradication: destruction of variola virus stocks
  Report by the WHO Secretariat for 59th Session of the WHO World Health Assembly, May 2006
• Smallpox: destruction of variola virus stocks
  Report by the WHO Secretariat for 58th Session of the WHO World Health Assembly,May 2005
• Smallpox eradication: destruction of variola virus stocks
  Report by the WHO Secretariat for 57th Session of the WHO World Health Assembly,
  April 2004
• Smallpox eradication: destruction of variola virus stocks.
  Report to the Executive Board by the Secretariat, 2003

Articles summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research

• Exploring the potential of variola virus infection of cynomolgus macaques as a model for human smallpox
  pdf, 564kb
• The host response to smallpox: Analysis of the gene expression program in peripheral blood cells in a nonhuman primate model
  pdf, 897kb

Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2009

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Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2008

• Full text

Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2007

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Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2006

• Full text

Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2005

• Full text

Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2004

- Diagnostic Development at the CDC: Update 2004
- Inferring the Phylogeny of Variola from Genomic SNPs Analysis
- Variola Morphogenesis effected by a by an erb-B Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor: Possible therapeutic functions
- The WHO Collaborating Center for Smallpox and other Poxviruses at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta: 2004 report on the variola repository

Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2003

- Analysis of Nucleotide Sequences of Individual Orthopoxvirus Genes
- Comparative restriction analysis of genomic DNAs of the variola virus strains from the Russian collection
- Human Combinatorial Antibodies against Orthopoxviruses
- Update on variola and orthopoxvirus diagnostic development and use
- Update on search for antivirals against human-pathogenic orthopoxviruses
- Viability estimation of variola virus isolates from the Russian collection

Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2002

• Capillary-electrophoresis restriction fragement length polymorphism : a new method for poxvirus fingerprinting
• Cidofovir Treatment of Variola (Smallpox) in the Hemorrhagic Smallpox Primate Model and the IV Monkeypox Primate Model
• Genome-wide analysis of the host response to variola infection
• Lethal infection of primates with variola virus as a model for human smallpox
• New PCR assays for identification of smallpox virus
• Variola virus genomics

For more information, please directly contact the authors of these abstracts at the addresses provided on the specific page.