Vince Cable

The government has recently made a statement about its plans against any attack on this country using biological agents.

A disease that was consigned to history twenty years ago, has once again been in the headlines and I have had several calls from worried constituents about it.

Smallpox virus could be used to attack the UK, although the government says that there is no evidence of a specific threat to do this. Nevertheless, they want to be prepared for any eventuality.

We stopped vaccinating against Smallpox when the disease was finally eradicated twenty years ago and the virus was confined to two laboratories in the world. Mass vaccination is not necessary at present and it was stopped because compared with other vaccines, it gave a high incidence of complications.

There are three components to the government's plan, vaccines have been stock piled, a plan of action in case of an attack has been drawn up, and a group of NHS staff have been identified to lead the vaccination programme should it be necessary.

There will be 12 Regional Smallpox Response Groups around the UK chosen from a cross section of expertise in the NHS. These response groups (a total of 350 people) will be vaccinated against Smallpox in the next few weeks. The groups will then be able to ring fence any outbreak and vaccinate the population at risk.

It seems to me to be very sensible to be prepared, but we must realise that a real risk of a Smallpox attack is not imminent and may never be.