Posted on 11/29/2006 3:14:05 PM PST by blam
Study: Federal vaccination plan inadequate
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A U.S. scientist is criticizing the effectiveness of a federal plan to vaccinate hospital healthcare workers against a threat of smallpox.
Temple University researchers who conducted the first metric analysis of the prophylactic health program say it fell short on several levels and raises questions about future preparedness.
In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked each state to vaccinate at least 50 to 100 healthcare workers per hospital -- a number the government considered large enough to respond to a possible smallpox outbreak.
"Some states requested thousands of vaccines, while others only a few hundred," said lead researcher Sarah Bass, an assistant professor of public health.
While the lack of an impending smallpox crisis might account for the differences, she said federal and state governments could have done a better job.
"Some felt the CDC or state health departments sent ambivalent messages about the importance of the program, and many states did not fully support the effort," Bass said. "The result was a very inconsistent uptake of the vaccination program ..."
The study appears online ahead of print in the journal Epidemiology and Infection.
If the worst does happen and you have loved ones that are maimed or die from smallpox, remember to properly thank all the CDC doctors and liberal politicians.
Government control of vaccines translates into withholding them from people who want them. It is easier to get illegal drugs than it is to get a vaccine that could save many thousands, maybe tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people huge misery.
Maybe this has nothing to do with the article, but, a couple of years ago, I read that a young North Korean soldier who defected to South Korea had a smallpox vaccination scar.
Something like that was more in my line of thinking.
I got a vaccination for smallpox in the 50's. I've read that there may still be some benefit.(?)
I was wondering if my smallpox vaccine is still any good to me. I got it sometime in the late 50s (born in 57). None of my kids had it tho, the oldest wasa born in 77.
I wonder if anyone has run titers on us old folks to see if we still have immunity?
susie
Just a simple stupid question:
Doesn't cowpox protect against smallpox?
I read a report some time back that said we still have some low level of immunity.
While the more primitive form of inoculation was practised long before the invention of immunization, the inventor of the more sophisticated process of immunization was a British doctor, Edward Jenner.
Jenner noticed the similarity between the lethal smallpox virus, which was currently devastating England, and the harmless cowpox virus. It is believed that this discovery was influenced by the old-wives-tale of dairymaids being immune to Smallpox.
By injecting a human with the cowpox virus (which was harmless to humans), Jenner swiftly found that the immunized human was then also immune to smallpox. The process spread quickly, and the use of cowpox immunization has led to the almost total eradication of smallpox in modern human society.
I thought the same. But, I expect it's more complicated than that
I think they could run titers, altho that's probably as expensive or more expensive than the vaccine.
susie
I agree, I think it's worth spending the money on (considering all of the other things they spend our money on!)
susie
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