Immunization Newsbriefs (c) Copyright Information Inc.,
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July 31, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"U.S. Readies Offensive Against Smallpox Threat"
USA Today (www.usatoday.com) (07/31/02) P. 8D; Manning, Anita
Tests on the original smallpox vaccine, Dryvax, and another by
Aventis Pasteur are underway in Texas and in Maryland, as are
studies on a new vaccine being developed by Acambis. Federal
officials, feeling the threat of bioterrorism since Sept. 11, are
fast-forwarding the research and clinical trials to determine the
safety and effectiveness of the 15.4 million stocked doses of
Dryvax and about 80 million doses of the Aventis vaccine that has
been in the deep freeze for 40 years. The Department of Health
and Human Services is expected to release some answers in just a
few weeks, as physicians and analysts continue to weigh the
science, politics, and logistics of a plan that would mean using
a relatively dangerous vaccine to protect possibly thousands of
people against a disease that was wiped out decades ago. Under
recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices (ACIP), only those people who are members of first
response emergency teams would initially be vaccinated. The ACIP
plans to initiate "ring vaccinations" entailing the isolation of
any single person with smallpox, and follow-up with vaccination
of those people who may have had contact with him or her. One
question still plaguing scientists is how immune to smallpox are
people who were vaccinated as many as 20 or 30 years ago. An
upcoming study by the National Institutes of Health will attempt
to determine just this, revaccinating volunteers who received the
shot years ago to see whether there is a "take," or a reaction to
the vaccine; no reaction could indicate that immunity to the old
vaccine remains.
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