News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – VaxGen Inc., a California biotechnology company, announced plans this week to seek US licensing for an attenuated smallpox vaccine that is considered safer than existing vaccines but was developed too recently to be proved effective against the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials project that about half of the estimated 10 million health and emergency response workers targeted for the second round of smallpox vaccinations will refuse the shots.

(CIDRAP News) – In a brief statement today, President George W. Bush announced that the government will begin giving smallpox shots to military and other government personnel in high-risk areas and to willing front-line healthcare workers.

(CIDRAP News) – Most people who took the opportunity to comment on a federal government proposal to test the smallpox vaccine in young children feel it's not a good idea.

Several hundred comments submitted in response to the proposal are available on a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Web site, and it appears that most of them oppose the trial.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revised and expanded its guidelines for ensuring that laboratories keep dangerous pathogens from falling into the hands of terrorists.

(CIDRAP News) – In passing a bill to create a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week, Congress left the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in charge of most bioterrorism preparedness and civilian biodefense research programs—to the relief of medical research and public health groups.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials have taken the unusual step of asking the public its opinion on whether the possible benefits of testing smallpox vaccine in a small group of children are worth the risks.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated the licensing for the government's decades-old stockpile of Dryvax smallpox vaccine by approving a new vaccine kit that includes a new diluent and bifurcated needles, according to federal officials.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) amended its June 2002 recommendations on smallpox vaccinations for healthcare workers this week in an effort to ensure that the healthcare system will have enough immunized people to deal with a smallpox outbreak.

(CIDRAP News) – The smallpox vaccine being produced by Acambis plc for the US government worked well in its second trial, generating a characteristic vaccinia lesion in all recipients and causing no serious adverse events, the company said this week.