State plans smallpox vaccination

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State plans smallpox vaccination

By Associated Press
Tuesday, September 24, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

BOSTON - Approximately 20,000 Massachusetts health workers in emergency rooms or ambulances and specialists in skin disease will be eligible to receive the smallpox vaccine later this year, state health officials said.

The state Department of Public Health last week completed its plan under a federal advisory committee's recommendation that state's offer the vaccine to health care workers who would be the first to come into contact with smallpox during a bioterrorism attack.

The federal government will provide smallpox vaccine at no cost to the states. Massachusetts hospitals were expected to schedule the vaccinations over a six- to 12-month period, starting by year's end.

The draft plan for Massachusetts is to be presented to an advisory panel on Oct. 1, and will go to the Department of Public Health later for a final decision.

The smallpox vaccine so far is not available to the public. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday that the government has 155 million doses available, and expects to have enough for all 288 million Americans by the end of the year.

The vaccine contains a virus called vaccinia, not smallpox. The main risk of the vaccinations, according to health officials, is that a small number of people who receive it could have severe side effects; 1 in a million cases die from the dosage.

Dr. Alfred DeMaria, director of communicable disease control at the Department of Public Health, said the vaccine could harm people, or be spread by infection.

"I think they (the public) are still thinking as if it is 1962 and think vaccination is no big deal, sort of like a flu shot, when actually it is a live vaccine virus, a little ulcer on your skin that has virus dripping from it," said DeMaria, who helped write the state's vaccination plan.

He said the state plans to be cautious, monitoring people who initially receive the vaccine to determine whether the virus is contained by a thick wrap placed around the vaccination lesion.

In a briefing yesterday, federal health officials said that if the vaccine is given to all Americans, about 300 people would probably die from complications, and others would suffer from side effects. However they said a smallpox outbreak would probably kill about one-third of those infected.

Although the vaccine itself is free, hospitals might incur large costs for heightened medical attention to those vaccinated, including any furloughs the health care workers might need.

 

 

 

 

 
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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.