(EST PUB DATE) PROLIFERATION DIGEST

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00499569
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2021
• Case Number: F-2021-00611
• Publication Date: July 1, 2000

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DI PD 2000-05J
July/August 2000
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National Security Unauthorized Disclosure
Information Subject to Criminal Sanctions
Dissemination Control
Abbreviations
NOFORN (NO Not releasable to foreign nationals
PROPIN (PR) Caution�proprietary information involved
ORCON (oc) Dissemination and extraction of information
controlled by originator
REL...
This information has been authorized for release
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NR Record
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�TOP-SeeRLAT
Russian Outbreak Not Smallpox
Analysts in the DCI Nonproliferation Center
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According to Russian press reports in June, at least eight
Vladivostok children under the age of 14 were exposed to smallpox
vaccine while playing with vials of outdated vaccine improperly
discarded by a local sanitary and epidemiological disease control
center. The children developed smallpox-like symptoms, and some
press reports said the children suffered from "smallpox." We assess
that the disease outbreak is not smallpox and is not related to
biological warfare (SW). The outbreak appears to have been caused
by vaccinia�the virus used in smallpox vaccines�rather than
variola�the virus that causes smallpox. (b)(3)
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Russian Outbreak
Not Smallpox
-Ter-fteRET
NR
We assess that a disease outbreak among children in Vladivostok initially
reported in the Russian press as "smallpox" is not smallpox and is not
related to biological warfare (BW). The outbreak appears to have been
caused by vaccinia�the virus used in smallpox vaccines�rather than
variola�the virus that causes smallpox.
� Russia's smallpox vaccine�the Lister strain of vaccinia�is more patho-
genic than the US vaccine strain and can provoke a severe reaction, which
is consistent with the children's reportedly severe symptoms.
� In addition, he children were exposed�by
ingestion, inhalation, or through cuts in the skin�to much higher doses of
vaccinia virus than normally would be received during a vaccination.
According to Russian press reports in mid-June, at least eight Vladivostok
children under the age of 14 were exposed to smallpox vaccine while play-
ing with vials of outdated vaccine improperly discarded by a local sanitary
and epidemiological disease control center. The children developed small-
pox-like symptoms�high fever and skin lesions�and required hospitaliza-
tion. Some press reports said the children are suffering from "ospa, " a word
that can be translated either as pox or as smallpox. Russian Health Ministry
officials have said the children do not have smallpox.
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-TOP-SEERET
Russia:
Report of Smallpox Vaccine Exposure
aired
ngdom
Germany
Romania
tioldinra
Slack
Sea
,Turkey
Saudi
Arabia
Russian smallpox
stored
Afghanistan
Vladivostok child's hands after
exposure to smallpox vaccine.
0 1000 leomaters
Arctic 0 1061183
Ocean
China
12
Sea ot
Okhotsk
Report of smallpox-like
disease
Vladivostok,
Sea
at
No Japan
ico a Jath
Korc
375042/753590A1 (R00028) 8-00
TOP-SiEeRE-1
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-TOP-SEeltET
The storage of smallpox vaccine in Vladivostok is not a particular BW con-
cern. Although smallpox vaccination of the general public should have
ended in 1980 with the eradication of the disease, the WHO recommends
that countries with existing stocks of smallpox vaccine continue to maintain
them.
� Russia's maintenance of its smallpox vaccine stocks suggests continuing
concern with pox virus outbreaks caused by naturally occurring viruses,
accidental exposure to pox viruses from facilities conducting legitimate or
possibly even BW work, or deliberate use of the variola virus in BW,
whether by Russia or by others.
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