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ATLANTA — Dozens of pregnant women in
the United States have been vaccinated against the deadly smallpox
virus despite warnings that doing so could harm their foetuses,
federal health officials have said.
The discovery, which was published in a report by the US Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention, adds to concerns about the safety of
a US campaign to inoculate thousands of soldiers and front-line
health-care workers against smallpox.
The CDC said 64 female soldiers, health care workers and women
participating in clinical studies were believed to have been
pregnant when they received the smallpox vaccine between December
13, 2002 and April 24, 2003.
Another 39 women conceived within four weeks of getting the shot,
according to the Atlanta-based agency, which is heading the civilian
vaccination campaign. Soldiers were vaccinated under a separate
programme administered by the Department of Defence.
Military and civilian authorities had been advised to exclude
pregnant women or those who planned to get pregnant within four
weeks of vaccination from the campaign because of the risk of foetal
vaccinia, a rare infection that can kill the foetus or cause
premature birth.
The US military and federal and state health officials are trying to
determine how pregnant women slipped through screening. It was not
immediately known how many women got the shot as part of clinical
studies but 52,185 military women and 6,174 female health-care
workers of reproductive age were vaccinated.
CDC officials noted that the pregnancy tests administered prior to a
smallpox vaccination might not be effective in the first few weeks
of pregnancy. “There is this window where nobody would realise
they’re pregnant,” said Dr Jane Seward, chief of the CDC’s viral
vaccine preventable diseases branch. “Some (of the cases) are just
unavoidable for that reason.”
Seward said that expectant mothers exposed to the smallpox vaccine
should not terminate their pregnancies since the risk of foetal
vaccinia was so low. Before routine vaccinations for smallpox ended
in 1972, just 50 cases, including three in the United States, were
reported. No cases have been reported in the past year in the United
States. The United States decided to resume smallpox vaccinations
for select groups last year as fears grew that the virus could be
used as a weapon by radical groups or countries like Iraq.
Smallpox kills about 30 per cent of its victims and scars the
remainder for life. It was eradicated in 1979. The current vaccine
is made using a live virus related to the smallpox virus. When
administered in the past, the vaccine killed up to two out of every
million people inoculated and sickened about 52 out of every
million. Some of those who became sick suffered severe brain damage.
In addition to pregnant women, US health officials had included
people with weak immune systems and those with chronic skin diseases
among the groups exempted from the smallpox vaccination programme.
Those with a history of heart disease or suffering from three risk
factors for heart disease were also recently excluded after two
health care workers and a soldier died of heart attacks shortly
after being vaccinated. — Reuters
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