Bandage Cost Concerns With Smallpox Vaccinations - virus can seep out and harm others??

wkrn ^

[chance33_98]

Bandage Cost Concerns With Smallpox Vaccinations

Bandage Cost Concerns With Smallpox Vaccinations

Reporter: Silvia Castaneda

A terrorist attack involving smallpox is a real threat, but the biggest hurdle in developing a vaccination plan is not the cost - it's the bandages.

Tricia Mewbourne went to Vanderbilt Medical Center to get a bandage change. She has a sore on her arm from the smallpox vaccine.

"You see the seepage and you wonder whether it's going outside," Tricia said.

The "it" she was talking about is the live virus in the vaccine. If the virus were to escape from her arm and expose others: "Certain individuals can get fairly ill and even die from this virus."

So Tricia and other Vanderbilt study volunteers are having sores kept under double wraps, using two bandages. Bandages are changed every three days for a few weeks. Each change costs a dollar, so in a mass vaccination situation: "If you multiply that by hundreds of thousands or several thousand individuals, it could be very costly," said Dr. Tom Talbot.

And if most of the state would have to be vaccinated, the bandage cost would be in the millions. But there's no plan right now on who'd pick up that cost. It could fall on strapped local governments.

"We are not stockpiling bandages at this time, " said Dr. Allen Craig.

State Health Department epidemiologist Dr. Allen Craig said it's too early to do that, not only because of cost, but because the federal government hasn't figured out what bandage may protect best. However, if millions of bandages would be needed in a hurry, Dr. Craig said cost wouldn't be a factor.

"We will be able to pick up the cost using federal or state dollars if we need to."

In the meantime, Vanderbilt researchers said they want to test different types of bandages to see whether the cheap ones, like gauze ones that cost just a couple of cents, could protect as well as the costly ones.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Several vaccines carry this risk. The navy recently shot me up with measels and yellow fever vaccines, and I was warned to stay away from any immune-deficient people for up to 5 days, as these are live virus innoculations.

In the old days, some people did die. One just had better odds of dying of smallpox than of the vaccine.

Personally, I'd use duct tape and meat-packing blotter for bandages, like tattooers do. Soaks up all sorts of goo.

[goodnesswins]

Thanks.....I agree....just a little side story.....I was at a local store today and decided to pick up some grapefruit seed extract, milk thistle, and vit c crystals.....I want those things on hand, as they are good "natural" antiobiotics or health treatments....anyway, got to talking with the gent in the health food dept about small pox, and he said he has an old book which talks about cream of tartar boiled in water as a treatment for small pox, used by the English in India....in the late 1800's.

What seems so funny about today's environment is the fact that people forget.....PEOPLE DIE of things EVERY DAY, and there is nothing we can do sometimes....it's part of life.

[Cold Heat]

PEOPLE DIE of things EVERY DAY, and there is nothing we can do sometimes....it's part of life.

Yes indeed, death is a integral part of life. One should be prepared to give it up at any time. A pragmatic view, but a honest one that is necessary.

[bonesmccoy]

Your point is well taken. However, people with HIV are unlikely to be candidates for vaccination, unless they are directly in a zone known to be hit with an attack or have been in direct contact with a victim.

While some undiagnosed HIV+ person could get immunized, their immune system should still be quite active (provided the physicians haven't missed the diagnosis in a chronically ill person).

In the end, you can actually prevent any such spread by simply covering the wound appropriately. That's why the CDC ring vaccination strategy doesn't make sense. It assumes too much and was clearly written by people who didn't consult with the private physicians of America.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Your point is well taken. However, people with HIV are unlikely to be candidates for vaccination,

Er... I meant that someone without AIDS who got the vaccination might transfer germs from the vaccination site to someone with AIDS. Then the person with AIDS gets the pox, and spreads it. There's a lot of monkey business goes on between a lot of folks with AIDS (and even between them and some foolhardy ones without it -- yet), if you get my drift.

[bonesmccoy]

I do get the drift. I would think that AIDS patients would be smart enough to stay away from a person with a small pox sore. That's why it's covered.

But, then again, these are the same people that think it's a genetic trait to engage in sexual contact with a person of the same gender!

[patriciaruth]

The vaccine will be voluntary for everyone except the military. Also any first responder who hasn't taken it will be quarantined if there is an outbreak.

You and I probably lived a lot longer and more productive lives than we would have without vaccinations. Polio killed and paralyzed a lot of children. The probable truth is that children and adults who are harmed by vaccines would probably be the least likely to survive the actual disease.

That is the subject of this thread, balancing the risks vs. the benefits of giving vaccine.

So as your doctor is probably correct that vaccination would be too risky for you, I recommend you get emergency stocks of everything you would need to survive if you had to hole up in your house for a month or so.

[patriciaruth]

I wonder if you can take the vaccine while pregnant

Not recommended. If you are pregnant, you'll need to be isolated in an epidemic, so getting uncontaminated stocks of everything you'll need ahead of time might be a good idea.

There will be a small supply of gamma globulin against smallpox to give to special cases that will provide short term passive immunity.

My guess is that pregnant women will be first on the list to receive it, but I wouldn't count on it being available in your area.

[chantal7]

The old vaccine was just cowpox virus which gave people immunity from smallpox, what is the new vaccine from England comprised of?

I doubt it would be smallpox itself. Altered cowpox? Synthetic?