http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/abc/20011021/ts/who_smallpox011021_1.html
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Sunday
October 21 02:52 PM EDT
WHO Weighs Urging of Smallpox Vaccines
By ABCNEWS.com
The World Health Organization (news
- web
sites) is weighing whether to call on countries to resume inoculations
against smallpox.
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The World Health Organization is weighing whether to call on countries to
resume inoculations against smallpox because of its possible use as a weapon of
germ warfare, a spokesman said today.
Smallpox, officially eradicated worldwide 25 years ago, is one of 11
diseases that the United Nations (news
- web
sites) agency has warned could be used by extremist groups bent on carrying
out attacks with biological weapons.
"Our advice to governments is that they should check their level of
preparedness for disease, and that includes for smallpox," said WHO
spokesman for communicable diseases Iain Simpson.
WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland has asked a team of experts to
study whether the agency should change its current recommendation that
governments should not inoculate against smallpox.
The vaccine can have potentially fatal side-effects in one case in 13,000.
As the disease is no longer considered to be a threat to health, the WHO's
advice has been not to vaccinate.
But the anthrax attacks in the United States, coming in the wake of last
month's suicide plane hijackings, changed all that.
Close to 40 people in the United States have been exposed to anthrax in the
past month. Eight people have been infected with the disease, and one man has
died.
The United States and other countries have seen a spate of false alarms and
hoaxes involving envelopes containing white powder that have increased alarm
over the threat posed by biological weapons.
"We are concerned about smallpox just as we are concerned about a
number of diseases," said Simpson.
Smallpox is caused by the variola major virus, and is marked by fever,
headache and widespread blisters.
Unlike anthrax, it is highly contagious. However, vaccinations can be
effective in treating the disease even after it has been contracted.
Inoculation for smallpox lasts for life, but national vaccination programmes
were halted in the early 1980s, meaning that young people have no protection
against the disease.
The WHO estimates that there are some 90 million doses of smallpox vaccine
stockpiled by governments for civilian use, with a further unknown amount
reserved for the military.
The U.S. government said last week that it had approached drug makers about
the possibility of producing 300 million doses of smallpox vaccine.
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.