Smallpox shot being debated
Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 27, 2003 12:00 AM
As Arizona prepares to order its first shipment of smallpox
vaccine this week, nurses and other health workers are debating
whether to volunteer for the controversial shot.
The state's 78 hospitals aren't sure they will offer the
vaccinations but are strongly encouraged to by county and state
health departments for "first responders" in the event of a
bioterrorism attack.
Mark Gonzalez, an emergency-room technician at St. Joseph's
Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, said he would get it if he
could.
"But I have a 13-month-old at home," he explained.
The voluntary vaccine, made from a live virus, is not recommended
for anyone with small children or immune-compromised family members
at home because the virus could leak from the injection site.
That's why even the chief of the state health department's office
of bioterrorism is opting out. David Engelthaler has a 6-month-old
girl.
The Arizona Department of Health Services will order a few
hundred doses of the vaccine as early as today, Engelthaler said
Friday. The vaccine will be shipped from the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, which is footing the bill, and
arrive by the end of the week.
"We still don't have a firm date as to when it will start,"
Engelthaler said of Arizona's vaccination program.
The state has identified as many as 7,700 health care workers who
would be eligible for the vaccine.
On Friday, Connecticut became the first state to begin
inoculating public health workers with the vaccine.
For many front-line workers, the decision is not only a personal
consideration.
Janet Shepard, a registered nurse and director of emergency
services at Chandler Regional Hospital, is considering her three
children before deciding whether to volunteer for the vaccine.
"You deal with it as a parent," she said, adding that her
children are 6, 8 and 11. "If I choose not to get the vaccine and am
exposed to smallpox at work, do I bring it home to my children?"
On the other hand, if she gets the vaccine and the virus seeps
through the dressing, could her unvaccinated children wind up being
harmed?
Shepard, 43, isn't worried about herself because she got the
vaccine as a child.
"I don't remember the hysteria over this then," she said.
But the number of organ transplant patients and individuals
living with cancer, compromised immune systems and even eczema is
much greater than when routine vaccination of smallpox ended in
1972. The World Health Organization declared the disease eradicated
in 1980.
The United States and former Soviet Union have maintained
stockpiles of the virus, and in the post-Sept. 11 world, it is
possible terrorists may have gotten some. Although officials insist
that the risk of a smallpox attack remains small, they believe
preparing health officials is the first step in fighting
bioterrorism.
Even after a smallpox exposure, individuals would have three to
four days to be vaccinated and not get the disease.
That's a relief to Trish Nichols, a registered nurse at Chandler
Regional Hospital who is used to dealing with potentially deadly
diseases.
"I don't want to get it, actually," Nichols said of the smallpox
vaccine. "I don't want to be an experiment."
Because she is only 30 and grew up in Canada, where vaccination
ended in 1970, Nichols never received the vaccine.
Being vaccinated as a child gives Tommy Ng, 46, a nurse manager
at Chandler Regional, confidence in getting it again. He expects to
be on the smallpox response team.
Laura McGrory, chief counsel for the Industrial Commission of
Arizona, said the state agency has been trying to decide what
position it will take when employees file workers' compensation
claims because the vaccine made them sick and forced them to miss
work.
       
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