US blueprint for smallpox mass-vaccination 16:05 23 September 02 NewScientist.com news service Government guidelines for vaccinating the entire US population against smallpox within five days of an outbreak are being dispatched to health commissioners in every state.
Vaccination within three days should prevent the disease developing in anyone exposed. If given within four or possibly five days, it should stop a person with the disease dying, says a spokeswoman for Acambis, one of the producers of a vaccine for the US. The manual offers advice on everything from the logistical challenges involved in rapidly mass-vaccinating 288 million people to medical side effects, say officials who have spoken to the Washington Post. "This is a very detailed, thoughtful recipe for response" to a bioterror incident, said Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota, who is advising the government. The new plan marks a shift in official US policy, which had been to vaccinate only those in contact with the first known cases. In July, researchers at Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claimed that this limited approach could lead to the needless deaths of thousands of people. Smallpox was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. But stockpiles remain and, since the attacks of 11 September 2001, fears have risen that terrorists could unleash it in an attack. Routine vaccination ended in the US in 1971. Deadly side-effects The US currently has a stockpile of about 165 million doses of a tried-and-tested vaccine, made on the skin of live animals. Studies suggest these doses could be diluted to provide a vaccine for every citizen. But in 2001, the US government also contracted UK-based Acambis to provide 55 million doses per year of a new smallpox vaccine, created using cell culture. Acambis has conducted tests of this vaccine on animals, but says its contract prevents it releasing details of those studies. However, all 70 subjects in a recent preliminary trial on people showed evidence of vaccination, the company says. On 19 September, it announced that it had packaged its first finished doses for the US stockpile. Some of these doses might be used first on medical personnel. The US has previously announced plans to vaccinate tens of thousands of "first responders", possibly by the end of 2002. But vaccination of the entire population before any attack is not on the agenda, because the existing older smallpox vaccine might kill one in a million recipients and cause serious illness in 10 times that number. The incidence of serious side-effects from the new vaccine is as yet unknown. Mass-vaccination against smallpox itself is not unprecedented. In 1947, 500,000 people in the New York City area were immunised in one day, following a death from the disease. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992831 ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
