Even regarding smallpox, a disease that is extinct but could be revived as a bioterror weapon, there is good news.

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Like polio, smallpox was a viral disease for which effective, easily administered vaccines existed.

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Likewise, a person with an infectious disease, such as smallpox, threatens with serious physical harm those with whom he comes into proximity.

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In the U.S., the smallpox virus is kept at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

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The eradication of smallpox was possibly the greatest victory of science over disease in the history of mankind.

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Mr Hilleman believed that science would eventually rid the world of disease, as it had disposed of smallpox in 1979 and is close to banishing polio.

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That could mean that even if we never face an attack of airborne anthrax or smallpox, funding more research into treatments for infectious disease will be a good thing.

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In December, 1966, Bill Foege was working as a consultant for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on smallpox eradication in a medical mission in a remote part of eastern Nigeria.

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