Ananova:

The Government is to acquire sufficient stocks of smallpox vaccine to inoculate the entire population in the event of a germ warfare attack by terrorists.

The plan to effectively double the country's present vaccine stock has been revealed in new guidelines on dealing with a smallpox outbreak issued by the Department of Health.

"It is planned that sufficient supplies will be available to vaccinate the entire population of the UK should this be deemed necessary," the document said.

Currently the Government is thought to have sufficient stocks to vaccinate 30 million people - around half the total UK population of about 60 million.

The Prime Minister's spokesman says the contract to supply the extra vaccine supplies is being put out to tender.

"We have enough to vaccinate key workers and we want to be able to enlarge our stocks further," he said.

"It is obviously important that we have a supply of vaccine as a contingency if we have to use it.

"We would not be doing this unless we thought it was part of a prudent contingency plan."

Earlier the Government announced plans to inoculate key groups of National Health Service and Armed Forces personnel who would be needed to deal with any outbreak.

Story filed: 17:26 Monday 2nd December 2002

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