WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 100 military medics received smallpox injections on Wednesday in the first wave of a US plan to immunize millions of troops and emergency workers against the long-dormant disease, now deemed a possible terrorist threat.

Army doctors and nurses, some in uniform, lined the hallways of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center immunology clinic in Washington, waiting to receive an injection known to carry the chance of severe side effects, some of them lethal.

Bridget, a 39-year-old nurse practitioner, walked into a small clinical room and pulled back her sleeve. A doctor jabbed her upper arm 15 times with a thin, two-pronged needle, drawing dots of blood, then covering it with a sterile bandage.

"I was chosen by default, I guess, because I'm the only one from my clinic not going away in the next two weeks," she said, declining to reveal her last name. "In a way I'm honored to be here so early. Somebody has to do it, it might as well be me."

President Bush announced on Friday plans to vaccinate soldiers, health care workers and other emergency personnel who could be called to respond to any smallpox attack and care for affected people.

Government officials said the plan would start with vaccinations for an estimated 500,000 soldiers and up to 450,000 emergency workers. Doctors began giving the injections on Monday.

Bush said he would also receive the vaccine, but the White House declined to say whether he has yet had the injection.

On Wednesday Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with CNN's "Larry King Live" program that he planned to be vaccinated.

"I certainly intend to ... simply because it's hard to ask people to do something that you're not willing to do yourself," he said, according to excerpts of the interview released by CNN.

HIGHEST RISK

The military began screening its medical staff immediately after the president's announcement, said Dr. Renata Engler, chief of Allergy and Immunology at the Walter Reed hospital, who was among the first to receive the smallpox vaccine.

Engler, who holds the rank of colonel, said military and civil service health professionals serving the Pentagon needed to build immunity to the disease, known to kill 30% of its victims.

"Health workers for (the Department of Defense) are the tip of the spear. If a smallpox case rolls in to our emergency rooms, we would be at the highest risk," she said in an interview.

"From a military perspective this is a required program, unlike in public health where it is still optional," she said. "We signed on to defend the nation. If something happens and they ask us to help, we have to be ready."

Smallpox has not occurred naturally since 1978 and the United States stopped vaccinating its citizens in 1972. But some experts fear that Iraq, North Korea and perhaps extremist groups have developed smallpox into weapons.

The vaccine has changed very little since its invention in the late 18th century. It is formulated to deliberately infect people with vaccinia, a live virus related to smallpox. The body's reaction to vaccinia makes one either immune or in some cases, less susceptible to smallpox.

Some people have severe side effects to the vaccine including a scarring rash, high fever and encephalitis, a swelling of the brain that can kill.

Engler said one or two in every 1 million people die from the vaccination, and another 1,000 per 1 million have a serious reaction to it, adding many side effects could be prevented with good hygiene.

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