Smallpox

(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration today released a long catalog of what it considers the nation's biodefense and public health preparedness gains over the last 3 years and promised more improvements to come.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal government researchers have reported promising results in animal testing of a candidate SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) vaccine that combines a weakened form of vaccinia virus with a gene from the SARS coronavirus.

(CIDRAP News) – Ten US military personnel were found to be HIV-positive after they received smallpox shots in 2003, but they were not harmed by the vaccine, according to a new online report in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

(CIDRAP News) –British biotechnology company Acambis plc has temporarily stopped recruiting volunteers for clinical trials of the cell-culture smallpox vaccine it is making for the US government because at least three cases of myopericarditis have occurred in one of the trials.

(CIDRAP News) – Nine out of 250 people who received their first smallpox shots in a recent study reacted with a variety of self-limiting skin rashes, a side effect that could be mistaken for a serious reaction to the vaccine, according to a report in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week published guidelines for the development of drugs to treat the side effects of smallpox vaccination, an area in which the federal government is investing substantial research funds.

(CIDRAP News) – Two studies announced by federal health officials today suggest that modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), a weakened form of the conventional smallpox vaccine, could provide a safer way to provide smallpox immunity to people at risk for complications from the standard vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – Complications of smallpox vaccination, such as cardiac inflammation and spreading of vaccinia virus to others, remain relatively rare after close to 600,000 vaccinations of US military personnel over the past year.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent case of vaccinia virus transmission from a soldier to his wife and then to their breast-feeding baby suggests a need for greater precautions by smallpox vaccine recipients and breast-feeding mothers who live together, according to a case report published this week.

Dec 31, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – Individuals receiving smallpox vaccine should wait 3 weeks before donating blood, according to guidance issued yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The recommendations are being issued as a precautionary measure to reduce the "very slight risk" of bloodborne exposure to vaccinia virus in certain patient populations, according to the agency.