510,000 healthworkers to get smallpox vaccine

[Guest guest]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20021016_618.html

Oct. 16

— By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half a million doctors, nurses and

other health care workers should be vaccinated against smallpox just

in case of an attack, a committee of vaccination experts said on

Tuesday.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the

federal government on vaccination policy, broadened its

recommendations for vaccinating those who may have to treat smallpox

cases if there were a biological attack against the United States.

The plan, submitted for consideration by the Department of Health and

Human Services and President Bush, calls for about 100 doctors,

nurses and other essential staff at major hospitals to get smallpox

vaccinations.

" There are roughly 5,000 hospitals (in the plan), so it adds up to

about 510,000 people, " said a spokesman for the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, which sponsors the committee.

" They include doctors and nurses in intensive care units, emergency

room workers ... and subspecialists including infectious diseases

doctors, " he added.

Bush and the HHS are trying to come up with a plan that will protect

the country in case smallpox is used in an attack, without

endangering too many people. The idea is to make sure key people are

protected against the virus so they can help any victims without

endangering themselves.

Smallpox was eradicated from the population in 1978 and vaccination

stopped in the United States in 1972. But officials believe the

virus, which kills about a third of patients and causes oozing

pustules that leave scars, may be developed into weapon form by

extremist groups and some governments.

It is not considered to be the most likely threat against the

country, but the disease is frightening and infectious and so it must

be defended against.

The trouble is, the vaccine is based on 100-year-old technology and

is crude and dangerous. It kills one to two people out of every

million who receive it and causes severe, life-threatening disease

such as encephalitis in 15 per million.

And people who do not get the vaccine can catch a virus from those

who have just been immunized. The vaccine uses a live virus related

to smallpox, which is usually harmless to people, but not always.

On Tuesday experts reported in the Journal of the American Medical

Association that between two to six unvaccinated people would

contract the virus used in the vaccine for every 100,000 immunized.

In infants, people with eczema and those with suppressed immune

systems, such as cancer patients and those with the AIDS virus, this

can have serious effects. Blisters and a red, raw rash can cover all

or parts of their bodies and it can cause blindness if it gets into

the eyes.

Nonetheless, the committee did not recommend that health care workers

who get the vaccine be put on leave. It let stand the existing advice

for protecting the vaccination site on the arm, which stays blistered

for up to two weeks.

The CDC and HHS are preparing recommendations for Bush that include

vaccinating up to 10 million health care workers, police, ambulance

crews and other " first responders " in case of an attack. They are

considering offering the vaccine to the general public in case of an

attack.

The immunization committee, meeting in Atlanta, is scheduled to make

more decisions on smallpox and other vaccines on Thursday.