News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – In a recent study, some laboratory and public health workers who received smallpox shots reported several side effects that have not shown up in other studies, including joint and abdominal pain, backache, and breathing difficulty.

(CIDRAP News) – As part of an effort to provide a safer smallpox vaccine, federal health officials today awarded contracts to two companies to develop and test a vaccine using a strain of vaccinia virus that can't reproduce in human cells.