"Scientists Call for Smallpox Revaccination Campaign"

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December 23, 2002

 

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

 

"Scientists Call for Smallpox Revaccination Campaign"

USA Today (www.usatoday.com) (12/23/02) P. 3A; Sternberg, Steve

 

Researchers at the Brookings Institute and Johns Hopkins University have released an alternative proposal to the Bush administration's smallpox vaccination plan.  The White House plans calls for the mandatory vaccination of hospital workers, emergency personnel, and active members of  the military.  However, the researchers' containment strategy calls for voluntary preventive vaccinations of all healthy hospital workers; voluntary preventive vaccinations of all healthy people who were inoculated with the smallpox vaccine before the virus was eradicated, as they face a lower risk of side effects from the vaccine; and isolation of all confirmed smallpox cases in hospitals following an attack and the immediate vaccination of people who have had household contact with an infected person.  This plan is based on a computer model of a county, with 800 residents, that simulates how people respond during epidemics.  Brookings' Joshua Epstein, the lead author of the new strategy, says the plan goes beyond just vaccinating first responders, and depending on their effectiveness, the strategies that perform well in "our model could form the basis of a national strategy."

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