SF Hospital Staff Not Likely To Get Smallpox Vaccine - City's Department Of Health Forbidding Health Workers From Receiving One

Vaccination News Home Page                                            subscribe Vaccination NewsLetter

http://kcal9.com/health/healthla_story_063144741.html

SF Hospital Staff Not Likely To Get Smallpox Vaccine
City's Department Of Health Forbidding Health Workers From Receiving One
 
  • Mar 4, 2003 11:46 am US/Pacific

    SAN FRANCISCO     (AP) The city's Department of Public Health has forbidden health workers who have direct contact with patients from receiving smallpox vaccinations unless they can find a way to avoid patients.

    Dr. Susan Fernyak, director city's heath department communicable disease prevention and smallpox planning, confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that patients with HIV, cancer and skin conditions could stand at risk of infection if they were to come in contact with vaccinated health workers.

    The smallpox vaccine is itself an infectious agent and there is a risk that newly immunized hospital workers could accidentally transmit cowpox to patients.

    With a tight budget and little wiggle room for scheduling, the city policy effectively represents a ban on the vaccine for San Francisco General Hospital staffers.

    "We didn't want anyone who is vaccinated, and is still infectious, to be working with patients directly," Fernyak said. "We have a high number of patients with HIV, with certain skin conditions, with cancer, with transplanted organs or who are taking immunosuppressive agents."

    A few doctors and administrators have found ways to juggle their schedules so that they can get vaccinated and avoid patients, Fernyak said.

    Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the risk of bioterrorism should not be taken lightly and that any reluctance of hospital workers to be vaccinated could be shortsighted.

    "Here's the problem: I don't think anyone knows what an attack would look like," he said. "Would it be one case in Middletown, USA? Or a thousand cases at different locations? You must have people in place to vaccinate people."

    Nurse union activists say most nurses at San Francisco General Hospital support the policy which requires that vaccinated workers refrain from direct contact with patients.

    "If you want to get the vaccine, and you've got vacation time on the books, go out and use it," said Lorraine Thiebaud, vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 790.

    Kaiser Permanente has put plans on hold to vaccinate its first-response staffers. Dr. David J. Witt, chair of Kaiser's infectious disease program, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Kaiser's doctors might be more willing to get the smallpox vaccination than union workers because the physicians have a better disability package.


    (© 2003 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )
     
    		•

     

    Vaccination News Home Page

     

    ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.