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June 28, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Smallpox Immunity Is Long Gone"
New Scientist Online (www.newscientist.com) (05/30/02); Coghlan, Andy
A study of 621 microbiologists in Maryland who have received smallpox vaccinations between 1994 and 2001 because of their work with controlled amounts of the virus indicates that just 6 percent of the workers were still immune from their previous shots dating from the 1970s and earlier. Researcher Michael Sauri, director of the Occupational Medicine Clinic in Maryland, said that he believes this is the only study since the eradication of smallpox to investigate the vaccine's durability. The study indicates convincingly that the immunity conveyed by a smallpox vaccination does not last two decades, so few if any Americans will have any kind of protection from their earlier immunizations. The information leads some experts to view preemptive immunization more favorably, because there is little chance that anyone is protected from smallpox now. Bill Bicknell, a former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, is a proponent of scaled vaccinations for health care workers and then for volunteers so that researchers might determine the side effects of the vaccine.
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