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http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/06/20/russia.smallpox/

Eight children hospitalized in Russian smallpox scare

June 20, 2000
Web posted at: 4:19 a.m. EDT (0819 GMT)

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (CNN) -- Eight children were hospitalized with a mild form of smallpox after playing with discarded vaccine vials they found in a Vladivostok garbage bin, authorities said.

The youths, ages 11 to 14, found the vials in a dump near the Vladivostok Epidemiological Center. Then they mixed the powder from the vials and sprinkled each other with the mixture, medical inspector Dmitry Maslov said on Monday.

"The children have contracted a mild form of smallpox, but the infections aren't putting their lives in danger and they can't be spread to others," Maslov said. They are suffering fever and discomfort associated with smallpox vaccinations but should be able to go home in a few days, he said.

When the children were taken to the hospital, doctors had trouble diagnosing their symptoms, which included high fevers and skin eruptions.

"We had to wait a long time before they could tell us what was the matter, and all the time our children had a 39- to 40-degree (102 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit) fever," said Margarita Kondrashova, the mother of one of the children.

Few doctors have any experience diagnosing or treating smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated in 1980. Doctors in Vladivostok did not realize they were dealing with smallpox until they learned the children had been playing with discarded vaccine.

The center was required to keep boxes of smallpox vaccine on hand to combat possible germ attacks. When the vaccines expired, center staff apparently threw them out with ordinary trash instead of disposing of them at a special medical waste dump, police said. Managers of the center could face criminal negligence charges as a result, Russian prosecutors said.

Kondrashova, the mother, said this is not the first time something like has happened at the center.

"Last year, some tablets were found near the rubbish dump which infected children, and now this," she said.

Correspondent George Bryant and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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