Free Republic

U.S. regulators Friday approved the first treatment for smallpox — a deadly disease that was wiped out four decades ago — in case the virus is used in a terror attack. Smallpox, which is highly contagious, was eradicated worldwide by 1980 after a huge vaccination campaign. But people born since then haven’t been vaccinated, and small samples of the smallpox virus were saved for research purposes, leaving the possibility it could be used as a biological weapon. Maker SIGA Technologies of New York has already delivered 2 million treatments that will be stockpiled by the government, which partially paid for...

In a move believed to be the first by a college campus in the nation, San Jose State University President Don Kassing has suspended all campus blood drives because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration bars any man who has had sex with another man from donating blood. "The FDA's lifetime blood donor deferral affecting gay men violates our non-discrimination policy," said Kassing in an e-mail sent to faculty, staff and students. The suspension, which is effective immediately, applies to blood drives arranged by employees representing the university as well as blood drives organized by student groups. The FDA's ban...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering providing bioterror antidote kits to U.S. homes, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. Agency spokesman Von Roebuck said that the kits could be distributed in Seattle to determine their feasibility. “There are a lot of avenues being looked at as to how we can get vaccines and antidotes to the general public in an emergency situation,” he said, adding that plans are still “in the drawing-board stage.” “At this point, there is nothing set in stone,” Roebuck said. “We want to have a very open mind when it comes to how we distribute...

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 Dr David Brown, PHLS...