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Federal
Smallpox Plan Promises Aggressive Response if Contagious Virus Is Released
Published:
The plan, developed by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calls for immediate vaccinations of
people close to any patient who contracts the highly contagious smallpox virus.
Disease detectives would retrace the victim's every move, searching for and
vaccinating all those who may have been infected. The vaccination is still
effective several days after the recipient has been exposed to smallpox.
People should not be forced
to receive the vaccination, said Dr. D.A. Henderson, the top bioterrorism
official at the Department of Health and Human Services.
"This really did not
work well at all," said Henderson, who led the global campaign that
succeeded in eradicating smallpox from the globe. "Once you began
compelling people and people began to try to escape from being vaccinated, you
lost the confidence of the people, and it became a really, often, a very
difficult situation."
"I think that you're
trying to persuade the population, trying to corral people in an appropriate
way," he added. "Without trying to do this by force, you get ahead a
lot further."
Smallpox hasn't occurred in
the United States since 1949 and was declared eradicated from the globe in
1980. But bioterrorism experts worry that the virus could be obtained by
terrorists and intentionally released in the general population.
The CDC response plan, first
reported by The Associated Press in October, is based on Henderson's global
campaign: Identify the victims, isolate them to keep them from infecting
others, and vaccinate anyone with whom they have may come into contact.
Investigators would interview each patient in order to retrace his or her steps
over the last three weeks.
State and local officials -
who would be on the front lines of any attack - are now reviewing the plan,
which is an update from a version first written in 1972, when doctors stopped
routinely vaccinating Americans for smallpox.
The original plan assumed
that any new smallpox case would result from an individual being infected in
another country and carrying the disease into the United States, Henderson
said. The updated version takes bioterrorism into account, with the possibility
that many people might be infected at once were the virus to be intentionally
released. In this case, Henderson noted, special quarters might be needed to
isolate the victims from those who are not infected.
But the plan makes clear
that entire cities or states won't get vaccinated unless CDC has evidence of
more than a few cases.
To breathe in the virus and
catch smallpox, a person must be within about six feet of a patient suffering
the characteristic rash. Those who live or work near a patient are vaccinated
just as a precaution.
Smallpox symptoms include
fever and a pock-like rash all over the body, appearing between seven and 17
days after exposure to the virus. People are contagious from the time the rash
appears - particularly in the first week of illness - until the scabs fall off.
If someone had smallpox, he
or she would immediately be quarantined. The CDC would send vaccine from the
government's stockpile and alert the FBI and the White House.
The government has 15.4
million doses of smallpox vaccine on hand, though research has found that each
dose could be diluted to vaccinate at least five people. HHS Secretary Tommy
Thompson is completing negotiations to buy another 300 million doses.
--
On the Net:
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/
AP-ES-11-26-01 1646EST
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