Smallpox

(CIDRAP News) – Two women in their 50s suffered dilated cardiomyopathy—enlargement of the heart—within 3 months after receiving smallpox shots, but it was unclear whether the shots caused the condition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported recently.

(CIDRAP News) – Six months after President Bush proposed the idea, the US House this week overwhelmingly passed "Project Bioshield," a plan to promote the development of drugs and vaccines needed to defend the nation against attacks with biological and other unconventional weapons.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers at Vanderbilt University will study three different types of bandages for smallpox shot sites to compare their ability to prevent spread of the vaccinia virus and their effects on healing time, the university announced.

(CIDRAP News) – People vaccinated for smallpox in the distant past can be successfully revaccinated with diluted vaccine and have fewer side effects than people receiving the vaccine for the first time, according to a randomized, single-blind study reported by Sharon E. Frey, MD, and colleagues in the Jun 25 Journal of the American Medical Association.

(CIDRAP News) – An influenza virus—especially one genetically manipulated for increased virulence—would be an attractive weapon for bioterrorists, according to physicians writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of human monkeypox cases under investigation in the United States continued to decline in the past week as 11 new possible cases were reported but 19 others were ruled out, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – Experience in the current US military smallpox immunization program makes clear that heart inflammation is a possible complication of vaccination, but the overall record suggests that smallpox vaccination today may be safer than in the past, according to reports published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(CIDRAP News) – Because of the risk of heart inflammation, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended yesterday that the federal smallpox immunization program not expand now beyond smallpox response teams to the larger population of health workers and emergency responders.

(CIDRAP News) – Julie Gerberding, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expressed confidence yesterday that the monkeypox outbreak will be choked off.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of suspected cases of human monkeypox in Wisconsin, where the outbreak was discovered, has begun to drop off, according to Herb Bostrom, director of the Wisconsin Bureau of Communicable Diseases.