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WASHINGTON Dec. 31 —

Recipients of the smallpox vaccine should not donate blood for at least three weeks after getting the shot, the government is warning, because that vaccine contains a live virus that might enter the blood supply and endanger other people.

The Food and Drug Administration's blood guidelines come as the government has begun inoculations expected to eventually reach millions of military personnel and health workers. Those two populations also make up the most faithful blood donors.

Included in the FDA's recommendations, which blood banks are supposed to implement immediately:

Recipients of smallpox vaccine should not be allowed to give blood for 21 days after vaccination or until the scab at the injection site has fallen off on its own, whichever is later. Anyone who has scratched off the scab should not give blood for two months after vaccination.

Vaccine recipients who suffer side effects from the vaccination should not give blood until 14 days after all those complications have disappeared.

Blood banks should ask all potential donors if they suffered any skin lesions or other complications from close contact with a smallpox vaccine recipient. Those whose lesions healed on its own can give blood, but anyone who scratched off a scab cannot donate for three months after contact with the vaccine recipient.

Donated blood later found to have been given wrongly by a vaccine recipient or contact must be destroyed or used for non-human research. If it already has been transfused, blood banks may need to alert the patient and his or her doctor.

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FDA recommendations:

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