"Smallpox Vaccination Would Require Close Monitoring"
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"Smallpox Vaccination Would Require Close
Monitoring"
Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com)
(10/15/02); McKinney,
Merritt
A panel of smallpox experts has suggested that
the widespread use of the smallpox vaccine--which contains vaccinia, a live
virus related to smallpox--may lead to many more cases of vaccine-related side
effects, which can include brain damage and death, particularly among those
people with compromised immune systems and infants. In a report published in
the October 16th issue of the Journal of American Medical Association, experts
including Dr John M. Neff, of the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical
Center in Seattle, Wash., say a tightly controlled and limited vaccination
program that includes comprehensive screening and education to exclude those
people who are at risk of dangerous side effects, as well as people in contact
with high-risk individuals, may result in only a fractional number of serious
exposures. However, Neff adds, the program currently undergoing review by the
government is far too extensive a plan to contain the exposure and
risks--particularly since immunization stopped in 1972, making anyone under 30
years old and newly vaccinated a risk to others for weeks afterward. The makeup
of today's population is different too, Neff observed, citing the prevalence of
HIV, more organ-transplants, and other illnesses that can compromise immune
systems.
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