UPDATE: Reports of smallpox-labeled vials at Merck plant contained 'no trace' of virus
Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980 by the World Health Organization, after an effort to vaccinate the globe. But several vials labeled as the disease were found at a Pennsylvania vaccine research facility belonging to Merck, when a laboratory worker was cleaning out a freezer.
The CDC released a statement Thursday stating that the vials contained no trace of the virus, but rather, the virus used in the smallpox vaccine, and not variola, the virus that causes smallpox.
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