Hot Topics - Diseases and vaccines - Smallpox/smallpox vaccine

Hot Topics - Diseases and vaccines - Smallpox/smallpox vaccine

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Diseases and vaccines - Smallpox/smallpox vaccine

March 1-7, 2004

►March 2, 2004 - Diluted Smallpox Vaccine Dose Equally Effective - Central News Agency via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

 ►March 2, 2004 - New Acambis CEO Announces Four-Fold Increase in Profits - press release - Acambis plc via PRNewswire-FirstCall via Yahoo! - "In developing new vaccines against infectious diseases, Acambis is aiming to maximise the value of its products by retaining rights to those vaccines for as long as possible. This means not only developing, clinically testing and licensing the vaccines but also, where possible, manufacturing, selling and distributing the product ourselves...The first of these primarily involves the development of our two key franchises: the smallpox vaccine franchise; and the travel vaccines franchise."

►March 15, 2004 - Looking Back at Smallpox - journal article (Clinical Infectious Diseases) - "Examination of clinical variants suggests that severity of illness was usually determined by host responses during the incubation period. Control of viral replication was aided by early postexposure vaccination and might be strengthened by additional immunological interventions."

 ►March 2, 2004 - Vaccinated GIs spread infections - Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer - "Thirty people in the military have transferred infections to other people after being vaccinated for smallpox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

 ►Military Vaccine Dangers - CBS News Video

February 23-29, 2004

►February 27, 2004 - Smallpox: Child Killer - The Korea Times - "Maximillian Taubles came to Seoul in early February 1886 over the muddy path that served as the road from Chemulpo to Seoul...The first impressions of Korea must have shocked him. Just outside of Seoul he was surprised to see groups of corpses, most of them children, unburied and exposed to the elements. Feral dogs roamed among them eating parts of the partially frozen bodies."

►February 20, 2004 - U.S. Smallpox Vaccination Program Hindered by Overburdened Health System, Study Finds - Nuclear Threat Initiative 

►February 27, 2004 - Smallpox vaccine pioneer lectures - The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

February 16-22, 2004

►February 20, 2004 - HIV immunity may stem from ancient smallpox - Gannett News Service via The Arizona Republic

Comment:  That's all well and good.  But what if having immunity to HIV doesn't really mean much?  What if HIV has nothing to do with AIDS, as some believe?

►February 12, 2004 - Breastfed Baby Exposed to Smallpox Vaccine Virus - Reuters via Yahoo! News 

►February 17, 2004 - Mass Vaccination Not Needed to Contain Smallpox Outbreak, Researchers Say - Nuclear Threat Initiative - "Conducting a mass vaccination against smallpox in the United States could save some lives in the event of an outbreak, but the risks of vaccine side effects would outweigh most benefits, researchers announced Friday (see GSN, Jan. 30)."

►February 19, 2004 - Russian 'Vector' lab probes secrets of smallpox - Reuters AlertNet - "It was one of the world's most deadly plagues, and some fear it might again be unleashed on mankind if bio-terrorists could get their hands on the virus...A quarter of a century after the last known case of smallpox, scientists at a heavily-guarded installation called Vector, deep in Siberia, are still conducting research on 120 strains of the virus...Responsibility for safeguarding the stockpiles lies with men like Sergei Netesov, Vector's deputy general director."

►February 17, 2004 - DoD reports complications in smallpox shot program - Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy

►February 14, 2004 - Missoula One of 75 Sites to Test New Smallpox Vaccine - AP via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►February 17, 2004 - Alert on anti-smallpox vaccinia - Households cautioned about virus transmission - Seattle Post-Intelligencer - "Soldiers and health care workers who take the smallpox vaccine should take extra precautions against spreading the live virus used in the vaccine to members of their household, according to a new report."

February 9-15, 2004

►February 13, 2004 - Genetic AIDS immunity traced to smallpox, not plague - www.gay.com

►February 14, 2004 - Surveillance and containment would be effective intervention against deliberate smallpox attack - Emory University Health Sciences Center via www.eurekalert.org

►February 14, 2004 - Smallpox vaccine tested in Missoula - The Missoulian

►February 10, 2004 - Breastfed Baby Exposed to Smallpox Vaccine Virus - Reuters Health - "Breastfeeding women who live with someone who has been recently vaccinated against smallpox should take extra precautions to prevent their infants from being exposed to the virus used in the vaccine, according to a new report...Doctors at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, have documented the case of a breast-fed infant who was exposed to the vaccinia virus, which is used in the smallpox vaccine...The baby's mother had not been vaccinated against smallpox but her husband, a soldier, was given the vaccine soon before the baby developed symptoms."

►February 10, 2004 - Smallpox Vaccine Spread Virus Through Family - HealthDay Reporter via  www.lifeclinic.com - "By his accounts and those of his 27-year-old wife, the soldier followed all precautions. Although he slept in the same bed as his spouse, he washed his hands, kept the site covered with gauze until it had fully healed and had limited contact with his 5-month-old daughter who was still breast-feeding...Nevertheless, in mid-May, the wife developed red, tender swelling around both her nipples. The area blistered, then ulcerated, leaving open sores around the nipple area. No one, including her doctor, suspected it was a vaccinia reaction, so she continued breast-feeding until May 29, when it became too painful...On the day she stopped breast-feeding, her baby developed a tell-tale blister on her upper lip, which turned into a pustule and formed a crust. The next day, she developed a similar lesion on her left check. On June 2, a pediatrician saw the facial lesions as well as one on her tongue and diagnosed her with suspected vaccinia. She was transferred to Madigan Army Medical Center, where she came under Fairchok's care...No one knows exactly how the transmissions occurred."

January 26 - February 8, 2004 (2 weeks combined due to illness)

►February 6, 2004 - 'The Challenge is to Stay Vigilant' - Can the nation deal with a bioterror attack?  A top health official says that 'substantial' progress has been made since 2001 -- but more work lies ahead. - Newsweek via MSNBC - "But one issue associated with the smallpox vaccine is the potential for toxicity. Because of that, we got involved rapidly in some contract arrangements to develop a second-generation smallpox vaccine. We already have it in phase one clinical trials and have pilot lots. Within a reasonable period of time, we’ll have a smallpox vaccine that is much less reactive, and therefore much more safe, than the current one."

►February 8, 2004 - Editorial: Smallpox preparations warrant close scrutiny - MySanAntonio.com - "The Department of Homeland Security rolled out its plan for administering smallpox vaccinations to public health officials in January 2003, saying about 500,000 first responders would be inoculated within a month...A year later, only 39,213 civilians had been vaccinated, according to a report issued by Democratic members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security...The partisan aspects of the report must be acknowledged. In a letter to Rep. Jim Turner, D-Crockett, the committee's ranking Democrat, panel Chairman Chris Cox, R-Calif., called the report harshly political and partisan."

►January 20, 2004 - Pediatric Infectious Disease Issues: Smallpox, Combination Vaccines and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Highlights of the American Academy of Pediatrics Annual Meeting - Medscape -  "However, the combination of multiple vaccine antigens presents several challenges. It should be recommended that the components of the vaccine be administered at the same time. However, the reactogenicity and potential side effects of the combined antigens have not yet been determined. Since there is the potential for physical and chemical interaction among the vaccine components and the buffers and preservatives, the immunogenicity of each component needs to be addressed to determine whether these are similar to and as effective as the components given individually.[10]"

Comment:  From the horse's mouth.  But not only should the "reactogenicity and potential side effects of the combined antigens" be determined, as well as the immunogenicity of each component be compared to combined ones, the potential for lethal and otherwise harmful combinations should be researched.  For a highly disturbing study, in which harmless viruses recombined with lethal results, click here.  (Note that while affirming the potential risk of such combinations occurring, the only apparent concern in this paper was for the immunogenicity of the components, not any safety issues which might occur as a result of them interacting.)

►January 29, 2004 - Democrats: Smallpox vaccination plan needs retooling - Eyeing a national smallpox vaccination program they say is stalled, House Democrats are urging the U.S. government to reinvigorate the plan for health-care workers if officials still believe terrorists may use smallpox as a weapon. - CNN

►February 2, 2004 - Smallpox vaccinations may be risky - UPI via http://interestalert.com - "New studies show people vaccinated against smallpox pose a low risk of infecting others if they follow proper bandaging and hand-washing procedures."

►January 27, 2004 - New smallpox vaccine being tested in the Valley - www.kesq.com - "'Only half of the population of the United States is immune to small pox right now and should something go wrong, everyone should be vaccinated.'...Kelly Morris, who's researching the test, says there is not enough of the old smallpox vaccine for everyone in this country. So now the goal is to find a new more effective vaccine then make more of it."

Comment:  Let me get this straight, half the population is thought to be immune but everyone needs to get vaccinated in the event of reemergence of smallpox?  And then because everyone will need the vaccine, we need to find a new, more effective one because there isn't enough of the old one for everyone, even though half are already immune?  How about instead, if there is a need for a a newer, more effective (how about safer, too?) vaccine, then go ahead and develop one.  But only vaccinate those who are not immune and choose to be vaccinated, knowing that at the outset half the population is already immune and may not want or need it.

January 19-25, 2004

►January 25, 2004 - How smallpox affected our cemeteries - Corsicana Daily Sun - "My only experience with smallpox occurred when I was vaccinated as a child for the disease. My memory of the incident is that the vaccination left an ugly round scar on my shoulder. I also remember everyone saying don't touch or scratch the scab until it was completely healed. As a teenager, I was very self conscious of the scar especially when we went swimming. I really don't know why I had these thoughts since everyone I knew had a similar looking mark."

►January 24, 2004 - Shots Have Healthy Repercussions Smallpox Vaccination Effort Helped Officials Learn How To Prepare For Disaster, Doctors Say - The Hartford Courant - "A year ago today, with the impending war with Iraq as a backdrop, three Connecticut doctors rolled up their sleeves and kicked off the nation's smallpox vaccination program...Anxiety about a smallpox attack and the vaccination program itself have almost disappeared. In retrospect, say those who were involved, it wasn't the vaccination effort that was important but the act of preparing for disaster."

►January 22, 2004 - Little interest shown for small pox vaccines - The small pox inoculation is coming up small among first responders, according to the Montgomery County health department. - The Mercury

January 12-18, 2004

►January 19, 2004 - Smallpox mixes make a stir - USNews.com - "To many public-health experts, it's disturbing enough that plain old smallpox lives on, albeit under lock and key, at the CDC and a second lab in Russia. Now the World Health Organization's committee on smallpox research is grappling with what to do about strange variants of the deadly virus. While urging the CDC to get rid of the old-fashioned hybrids, the panel is weighing proposals to create new smallpox chimeras using the powerful tools of genetic engineering."

►December 12, 2003 - HHS Issues Rules for Smallpox Vaccine Injury Compensation Program - US Dept of Health and Human Services  

►January 13, 2004 - Smallpox Scare at Pioneer Valley Hospital - KSL News - "A simple case of Chicken Pox brought out the health department and caused quite a stir at West Valley's Pioneer Valley Hospital...It's not everyday a common childhood disease attracts so much attention. But that's all changed in our post September 11th world with worries over terrorists, getting their hands on chemical and biological agents."

►The Dangers of Smallpox Vaccination - www.naturodoc.com - "The public is now getting lots of medical propaganda about the eradication of smallpox through vaccination.  But in fact, the consensus among leading medical historians that have studied the question have maintained that the eradication of the zymotic, or "filth" diseases, like cholera, dysentery, typhus, plague, in the past that are popularly attributed to mass vaccination campaigns, had actually been due to improvements in diet, hygiene, sanitary measures, non-medical public health laws, and to a host of new non-medical technologies, like refrigeration, faster transportation, removing horse manure from cities, and the like (McKinlay, 1977;  McKeown, 1979;  Moberg & Cohen, 1991;  Oppenheimer, 1992;  Dubos, 1959)."

January 5-11, 2004

►January 19, 2004 - Smallpox mixes make a stir - Virus Research - www.usnews.com - "Cleaning out the freezer usually turns up old stuff that's been long forgotten. That holds true even for the supersecure freezers that safeguard vials of deadly smallpox virus deep within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. A recent inventory unearthed unusual chimera viruses created 40 years ago by crudely combining smallpox with other pox viruses...To many public-health experts, it's disturbing enough that plain old smallpox lives on, albeit under lock and key, at the CDC and a second lab in Russia. Now the World Health Organization's committee on smallpox research is grappling with what to do about strange variants of the deadly virus."

►January 8, 2004 - Public Meeting on How to Proceed with Emergency Smallpox Vaccinations in the Northwest Corner will be held Jan. 20 - Kent Tribune

►January 9, 2004 - New warning over monkeypox threat - The US could face further outbreaks of dangerous monkeypox if the virus has gained a foothold among native animals, say experts. - BBC

►January 5, 2004 - Smallpox vaccine elusive - Public demand for vaccination has subsided.  Concerns about side effects may outweigh fear of disease. -  The Morning Call Online - "Even a potentially safer experimental vaccine against the deadly disease being tested by the National Institutes of Health has insufficient takers. After a year, program officials have enrolled 130 of the 185 participants needed."

Comment:  Given that the smallpox vaccine is known to have (an unknown number of) serious reactions and the risk of getting smallpox is probably small, it would seem that the public does know best.

Comment:  Unless they expect serious adverse reactions to occur in more than 1/185 people, a study of this size certainly cannot be expected to identify serious adverse reactions.

►January 4, 2004 - Greater awareness of smallpox threat advocated - Star-Telegram - "The risk of a smallpox attack may have waned in the public's eyes. But some still regard smallpox as a credible bioterrorist threat, and they have criticized the health care community's weak response."

December 29, 2003 - January 4, 2004

►December 30, 2003 - Smallpox attack simulation uncovers critical communications problems: report  CP via Health Canada Network - "Thank God it was only a simulation...A multi-country bioterrorism exercise held earlier this year highlighted critical weaknesses in intergovernmental communications capabilities and national response capacities, a report on a mock smallpox attack reveals."

 

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