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June 21, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Limited Smallpox Vaccine Use Eyed"

Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) (06/21/02) P. A1; Brown, David

The federal government received a recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to  expand smallpox vaccine use to a small cadre of healthcare workers and law enforcement personnel in each state.  The suggestion is the narrowest of the several options the committee considered for dealing with a potential bioterrorist release of the virus.  The committee feels that the risk of an attack is too small to justify the many complications that would arise from widespread vaccination.  Panelist Natalie J. Smith says that policies could change if the risk were to increase.  The limited expansion of smallpox vaccine availability reveals that the committee feels that a surveillance-and-containment strategy, the technique that was used to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s, would be an effective defense to an epidemic.  This approach, also known as "ring vaccination," doesn't rely on full-scale vaccination of a population, either before or after an outbreak.  The ACIP is made up of public health officials and academic physicians appointed by CDC.

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