U.S. Setting Plans for Massive Smallpox Inoculations

September 23, 2002
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials were expected to issue detailed guidelines Monday for vaccinating the entire U.S. population against smallpox within five days of an outbreak of the disease, according to a report in The Washington Post.

The 100-page manual being sent to health commissioners in the 50 states and the U.S. capital was intended as a blueprint for a nationwide response in case of a biological attack, the newspaper said in its Monday edition.

"This is a very detailed, thoughtful recipe for response" to a bioterror incident, said Michael Osterholm, a public health expert at the University of Minnesota who is advising the federal government.

The recommendations were designed to help states and cities develop plans "for vaccinating the largest amount of people in the shortest time possible," he told the Post.

The manual offers advice on how to operate mass vaccination clinics and includes suggestions on utilizing the National Guard, recruiting translators and contending with extreme weather conditions, according to the newspaper.

At the first hint of a smallpox case, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta would begin dispatching emergency teams to the area to confirm the outbreak and begin vaccination, the report said.

For now, the Bush administration did not anticipate inoculating the nation's 288 million residents, the report said, adding the vaccination plan would be activated only if an outbreak of the deadly disease occurred.

In developing the strategy, administration officials weighed the risks of vaccinating large numbers of people with a vaccine that is relatively dangerous, versus the theoretical but serious risk of biological attack.

Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980, and routine smallpox vaccination stopped in the United States in 1972. The United States and Russia keep the only official supplies of the variola virus that causes smallpox, but experts fear other countries or extremist groups may have access to the agent and could unleash it as a biological weapon.

The highly contagious disease is characterized by blistering of the skin and fever, and kills about 30 percent of its victims.

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