Posted on 06/23/2004 11:21:23 PM PDT by FairOpinion
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma City-County Health Department tried to prove Wednesday that it is possible to treat 1 million people who may have been exposed to smallpox.
Officials with the Oklahoma City-County Health Department conduct a massive smallpox vaccination drill.
Officials conducted the massive exercise in outdoor tents outside at the department's offices. During mock questioning sessions, officials drilled participants on their conditions, asked them where they had been and asked them if they had experienced any symptoms of smallpox.
Although the disease hasn't existed in the United States in decades, government officials say smallpox -- along with anthrax -- is one of the two diseases that are the most likely to be unleashed in a biological attack.
City-county health officials told Eyewitness News 5 that the intense questioning is necessary if officials are to treat all county residents in the event of a smallpox attack.
"The threats that face us are real, and there is the potential that everyone in the community would need to have an immunization for small pox," said Dr. Paul Dungan.
In the training scenario, officials said, staff and volunteer participants are calm and give their answers with confidence. Health official Gene Caslin said that might not happen when the threat is real.
"In an unvaccinated population, we would expect about 300,000 to be sick and about 100,000 to die," said Caslin. "If the vaccination gets to the people in time, the number of deaths drops to one or two. But they have to act and act quickly."
Officials said 1 million people would need to be vaccinated in about 10 days in the event of an attack.
The smallpox vaccine is not something that a personal physician can provide ahead of time, and experts say it is still controversial. Many health care workers have refused to receive the vaccine.
Considering how slow they generally are in diangosing diseases, I don't like the odds.
Why, oh why, don't they make the vaccines available BEFORE there is an outbreak, so people could get them at their leisure and be protected.
Related article:
'Outbreak' demands pragmatism
http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=66850&SecID=2
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Mecklenburg County leaders learned just how prepared they would be for a bioterrorism attack after beginning a 36-hour drill to simulate a smallpox outbreak in the Queen City.
In Tuesday's drill, however, there was only a small supply of the smallpox vaccine. So officials had to choose who to inoculate.
The officials also had to determine how much information to communicate with the public, and by what means to transmit their message.
I think he's overstating the case. 300,000 infections would be the worst case sinerio, and the bio-terrorist would have to find a perfect means of delivery. Also, smallpox (I understand-not a Doctor by any means!) isn't hard to diagnois. With ring-vaccination and contact tracing I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of attack would be a dud.
Now a chemical weapon is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
What you are not allowing for is that there isn't going to be ONE isolated case, but hundreds, at least, in several cities all at the same time.
Ring vaccinations only work in natural transmission. Even there they had to vaccinate thousands.
Bookmark. Thanks, backhoe.
Actually chemical weapons, while terrible, kill whoever is around at the time, then it's over.
But smallpox is contageious and keeps killing.
Just think of terrorists releasing aerosolized smallpox at a few airports, or inside airplanes, or contaminate some salad bars.
Smallpox killed some 500 MILLION people in the 20th century.
Now, when the population is very mobile, it would spread like wildfire, literally.
The only protection is preventative vaccination, before an attack.
Ok, but you assuming that there will be hundreds of exposures at once, in multiple cities. That requires a complex conspricacy, and complex conspiracies have a way of failing.
You mean, unbelievable, as hijacking multiple airplanes simulataneously and flying them into high profile buildings?
The terrorists are out to kill thousands, not a few and will do whatever is necessary to accomplish that.
I think we are still underestimating their resolve.
Well, I tend to disagree. A chemical weapon can be safety moved around in any number of fail-safe containers. Easy(ish) to make, and largely impossible to treat large numbers of affect folks.
A bioweapon has to obtained (hard),kept within strict tolerances, and depending on environmental conditions can simply fail.As I recall, some crackpot cult in Japan released a big cloud of Anthrax on the US embassy there. Effect? Nil. Also, the actions of the population can strictly limit the spread of disease. One Doctor told me during the SARS epidemic told me that if it got bad enough, they would just tell people to stay in. Then treat the cases in insolation. I'm not sure if it would be THAT easy, but an very effect response can be whistled up in a hurry.
I think I'm going to spend my hard earned worry on chemicals and good old fashioned explosive attacks by the insane.
I'm almost certain it's correct that one can be vaccinated against this disease up to 5 or so days after contact.
However, I agree, why can't we be vaccinated now?
I do also think that if smallpox is released, it will be some genetically modified form so nothing we have will protect many of us against it.
the original "Dark winter" war game proposed a release of smallpox in an Oklahoma city Truck stop.
Here's a cdc discussion of the issue:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no4/otoole.htm
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