Smallpox

(CIDRAP News) – The results of a small study reported this week suggest that the immunity induced by smallpox vaccination may last 35 years or longer—considerably longer than experts have generally believed.

(CIDRAP News) Ð The Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention (CDC) is much better prepared to deal with a terroristattack now than it was a year ago, before Sep 11 and the subsequent anthraxattacks, CDC officials said this week.

(CIDRAP News) – President Bush's National Strategy for Homeland Security, released this week, lays out a lengthy agenda for defending the country against bioterrorism as well as other kinds of terrorist attacks.

Note: This article was updated on Jul 16, 2002, with comments from a senior health economist at CDC on the study discussed.

(CIDRAP News) – Though two top federal health officials recently were quoted as saying that half a million healthcare workers may be vaccinated against smallpox, the official word from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is that the scope of the vaccination program has not yet been decided.

(CIDRAP News) – A clinical trial of the decades-old supply of smallpox vaccine held by Aventis Pasteur is in progress, and early signs are that the vaccine is still potent, according to a spokesman for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

(CIDRAP News) – Caught between the unknown risk of a smallpox attack and concern about adverse vaccine reactions, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) yesterday recommended that only healthcare workers assigned to deal directly with a smallpox outbreak be vaccinated against smallpox.

(CIDRAP News) – Fifty-nine percent of respondents to a recent nationwide poll said they would get vaccinated against smallpox if they could, despite the risk of adverse reactions and the decades-old absence of the disease, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.

Jun 10, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – The smallpox virus has a protein that inhibits the human complement system far more effectively than does its counterpart protein in the closely related vaccinia virus, used in smallpox vaccine, according to researchers who compared the two proteins. This difference may be an important reason for the virulence of smallpox and may offer an avenue for research on treatments, they suggest.

(CIDRAP News) – In their initiative to take the public's pulse on smallpox immunization policy, federal health officials have announced the schedule for five upcoming public forums and have set up a Web page to gather comments on policy options.