One in a million recipients is likely to die
Dr David Brown, PHLS
Posted on 05/29/2002 4:34:49 PM PDT by Gritty
US researchers are warning people vaccinated against smallpox as children that they are unlikely to still be protected.
Smallpox was eradicated in the mid-1970s, but researchers warn bioterrorism fears mean mass vaccination should now be reconsidered.
But experts are divided over whether research, featured in New Scientist magazine, mean there should be a renewed mass smallpox vaccination programme.
In tests, doctors from Maryland found only 6% of over 600 microbiologists who were being re-vaccinated in the late 1990s were still immune to smallpox from their earlier vaccinations.
One in a million recipients is likely to die |
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Dr David Brown, PHLS
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In America, around 60% of the population has had a smallpox vaccination, but most will be just as susceptible to smallpox as the 120m born since the government stopped the vaccination programme in 1972, the researchers say.
Britain also stopped its vaccination programme in the early 1970s.
Lack of protection
Michael Sauri, director of the Occupational Medicine Clinic in Maryland said: "The study is, to the best of my knowledge, the only one since eradication which tries to look at the durability of immunity.
"It's showing us that after 20 years immunity is not going to be there."
Bill Bicknell of Boston University, a former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health thinks the Maryland research backs up his view that there should be mass smallpox vaccination.
He believes it is necessary in case terrorists use smallpox in attacks.
"It adds to the argument that you can't count on any protection we thought we had," he said.
"I'm not saying you just go straight in and vaccinate the population - you'd do it steadily in stages."
He recommends healthcare workers should be first, followed by volunteers screened to check they're healthy.
But many argue against mass vaccination.
Uncertain risk
Like many other countries, Britain currently prefers "ring vaccination", where only people in the area of an outbreak and people they are in contact with are immunised.
Dr David Brown, director of the UK's Public Health Laboratory Service Virus Reference Division, told BBC News Online: "It's generally agreed that you've got almost complete protection against smallpox if you were vaccinated in the last three years, but it decreases from that time.
He said the arguments around vaccinating because of bioterrorism fears centred around the risk of a smallpox attack contrasted with the risks associated with mass immunisation.
"What we're not certain of is what the risk of a bioterrorist attack is. There is a risk, but it's never been well defined."
"And if we did go for mass vaccination, we would have to go for multiple vaccination - every three to five years - for full immunity."
He added: "One in a million recipients is likely to die, and that's without considering cases infected with HIV."
Illness rates, he said, would be even higher.
The Maryland research was also published in Maryland Medicine.
Search for "Adverse reaction".
Studies Cite Smallpox Vaccine Tradeoff
When I did some surfing last year just after 9/11, I also came up with some lovely pictures of people whose arms are literally rotting around the vaccination site.
Bad reactions occur from smallpox vaccines and there has been little or no research on better vaccines for decades. It is however rare.
That's the point. The way things stand now, even the relatively low incidence of sickness or death that are associated with the smallpox vaccine poses a greater risk than actually contracting the dz and dying from it.
You see the smallpox vaccine is actually a live viral vaccine, not variola itself, but a related virus vaccinia. Any time you give someone an active "bug" you run the risk of complications. It's the biggest reason that smallpox vaccination in the country stopped, even before the dz was "officially" eradicated.
Actually, when I received my vaccination as a baby I was quite ill - ran a 103+ degree fever for about 10 days. My parents told me their doctor said I should think twice before ever having a booster.
I did in fact mix up TB for SP. Sorry for the mistake.
While others pointed this out to me, I really want to thank you for your sensitive and kind words.
Now, how about you take a time-out in terms of posting until you learn your lesson.
Write, "I will not post ignorant claptrap and befoul Free Republic's Forum anymore" 10,000 times.
Again, your razor sharp keen intellect on display.
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