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Member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO), meeting in Geneva, have voted to delay for a further three years a decision on whether to destroy the last remaining stocks of the deadly smallpox virus. Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

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For years the debate over what to do with them has raged. In Geneva developing countries argued it was high time to destroy all known samples of a virus which in the past claimed millions of lives.

But the United States and Russia, the two countries which hold the virus samples, wanted to keep them for at least another five years saying that if smallpox ever re-emerged, either by accident or even deliberately, the samples could be needed to create a vaccine.

That argument seemed finally after days of division to sway member states, and they approved a compromise - postponing a decision on destroying the virus samples for another three years.

And so the fate of one of the world's deadliest viruses is still not decided and the debate over whether the world is safer with it, or without it, will continue.

Imogen Foulkes, BBC News, Geneva

Listen to the words

was eradicated
was destroyed and is no longer a danger to public health around the world

has raged
has continued with strong opinions on either side

high time
an appropriate and right thing to do

samples
small amounts of the virus used for research

re-emerged
came back

deliberately
not as an accident but on purpose

to sway
to persuade

a compromise
a decision which everyone agreed on but is not really what either side wanted

postponing
delaying

the fate of
the future of

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