Smallpox vaccination recommended for those exposed to virus.

2003 JUL 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued interim guidance advising states that persons investigating monkeypox outbreaks and involved in caring for infected individuals or animals should receive a smallpox vaccination to protect against the possibility of contracting monkeypox.

CDC is also recommending that people who have had close or intimate contact with individuals or animals confirmed to have monkeypox should also be vaccinated. They can be vaccinated up to 14 days post-exposure. Since the smallpox vaccine is not an approved vaccine for monkeypox, the smallpox vaccine for this CDC-recommended use is being distributed under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) special procedures to allow such emergency use in association with individual patient informed consent and approval by an institutional review board (ethics committee).

CDC is not recommending smallpox vaccination for veterinarians, veterinary staff, or animal control officers who have not been exposed. It does, however, encourage such personnel to use standard infection control measures to prevent contact or airborne transmission of the virus if they are involved in investigation or treatment of ill animals.

Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the department under which the CDC falls, said, "State health departments have been actively involved in planning and preparing for the possibility of a bioterrorist event. We are now seeing that this level of preparation can also assist in unexpected, natural outbreaks."

"Monkeypox can be a serious illness, and it has not been previously seen in humans in this hemisphere. CDC, FDA, and a team of expert ...