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CDC Plans Isolation As Smallpox Strategy

Officials Lack Enough Vaccine For Everyone

POSTED: 2:49 p.m. EST November 26, 2001

ATLANTA -- If a smallpox bioterror attack comes, infected victims would be quarantined and people who were close to them would be vaccinated.

Officials said they lack enough vaccine to give everyone a shot, but they don't want people to panic.

Federal health authorities spoke Monday about their updated plan to fight a disease that has not occurred naturally anywhere in the world for decades.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's strategy focuses on what's called "ring" vaccination. Confirmed and suspected smallpox patients would be isolated. People who had been near them would be vaccinated and monitored closely, to keep the very infectious disease from spreading.

CDC officials said there is not enough vaccine for "indiscriminate" vaccinations. For the uninfected general public, the update calls for education and communication. The goal would be to control what one official termed the possibility for "a large amount of panic."

Previous Stories:

• November 6, 2001: Scientists Hard At Work Making Future Vaccines
• October 26, 2001: Smallpox: "We Eradicated It Before..."
• October 19, 2001: Why Vaccines Are Our Best Shot
• October 17, 2001: Government Preparing For Smallpox Threat
• September 26, 2001: Bioterrorism A Threat, Officials Say

Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.