Smallpox Shots Don't Include Safety Needles

The U.S. government's plan to inoculate 10.5 million medical workers against the smallpox virus doesn't include the use of the latest needle technology that can help prevent needlestick injuries and the spread of disease.

Health-care workers have complained that the government's decision to proceed with its vaccination program without using the two-pronged safety needles is further evidence of the program's haste and disregard for important health issues, United Press International reports. The special needles were approved for smallpox vaccinations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 2002.

The needles are equipped with safety features to reduce the risk of needlestick injuries, which can expose health-care workers to blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.

Dr. Ray Strikas, a medical epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Immunization Program, told UPI that the smallpox vaccine was approved as a package without the safer needle because it was unavailable at the time the FDA began contemplating the vaccine.

Health-care workers suffer between 600,000 and 1 million needlestick injuries each year, according to the American Nurses Association. About 1,000 of them result in serious infections.

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-- Felicity Stone