>if administered within 48 hrs of infection -
That's a problem. Smallpox, from what I read, doesn't show obvious symptoms for a few days post infection. So how do you know the person doesn't have the flu, or some other disease? How do you know for sure who has been exposed to Smallpox?
If a known contact of yours has the contracted smallpox, you will be quarantined by the health authorities. If you know that contact has been in the last 48 hours, you need to ask for cidofovir or one of the other experimental treatments -
but if they are acting like it doesn't exist, that may be hard to do...