New anti-smallpox drug approved

US authorities approved the first smallpox treatment in case the virus was used in a terrorist attack. Smallpox, highly contagious, was eradicated from the world in 1980 through a colossal vaccination campaign

However, people born after were not vaccinated and small samples were kept for research purposes. , which opens the possibility of using the virus as a biological weapon.

SIGA Technologies of New York has already provided two million treatments to the government for storage, which funded part of the development of the drug, called TROXX.

To test the effectiveness of the drug, monkeys and rabbits were infected with a similar virus, provided the drug and 90% survived, the company said. His safety was proven in several hundred healthy volunteers, who were not infected with smallpox.

Smallpox killed some 300 million people worldwide during the 20th century before being eradicated. ] Symptoms include fever, fatigue, and festering ulcers. Until now, doctors could only provide palliative care such as intravenous solutions and fever remedies, and isolate patients. Vaccination can be used to prevent infection, but it must be given five days after exposure to the virus well before the symptoms appear.

"This new treatment offers an additional option if smallpox is used as a biological weapon." Dr. Scott Gottlieb, director of the US Food and Drug Administration, said in a statement

SIGA is developing vaccines and drugs for biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear attacks. The chief executive, Phil Gomez, stated that "the company is developing an intravenous version and plans to sell drugs to other countries and treat other infectious diseases, such as monkeypox, that African monkeys can transmit to humans. Monkey pox can spread among people and has a mortality rate of about 15 percent.

Virus encapsulated by the United States and Russia

The governments of the United States and the former Soviet Union (now Russia) retained a sample of the virus. In 1990 they accepted its destruction before 1993, officially it was never notified if the extinction was carried out.