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http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/298/5597/1342b

EPIDEMIOLOGY:
Controlling Smallpox

Jim Koopman

Mathematical modeling enables predictions to be made about the best vaccination strategy to eradicate a bioterrorist smallpox outbreak. In his Perspective, Koopman discusses a new study (Halloran et al.) which suggests that targeted vaccination of exposed individuals rather than mass vaccination of all individuals may be the most effective approach. However, as Koopman points out, accurately modeling the transmission of smallpox is very difficult in the absence of data about smallpox outbreaks.

The author is in the Department of Epidemiology and the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. E-mail: jkoopman@umich.edu

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