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May 12, 2003

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“Smallpox Strategies Shifting”

Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) (05/12/03) P. A1; Davenport, Christian

The lack of volunteers for the smallpox vaccination program has public health officials in the Washington, D.C. area concerned that they may have to immunize health workers after an outbreak begins. The severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak and the end of the war on Iraq have diverted attention from the possibility of a smallpox biological attack, but some experts want health leaders to encourage more health care workers to be vaccinated and to plan for an outbreak. However, some officials think that plans should be changed instead, even though vaccinating health care workers after an outbreak begins would not be the most efficient method. Officials in Washington, D.C., had hoped to vaccinate 3,000 health care workers, but so far only 100 have been, while in Maryland and Virginia, where officials received a total of 16,000 doses of smallpox vaccine, less than 800 people have been vaccinated.

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