Study tests vaccine bandages.

2003 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- As questions continue to swirl around President Bush's national smallpox vaccination plan, Vanderbilt University Medical Center is launching a new smallpox bandage trial that will help answer questions about one of the major issues associated with receiving the vaccine.

In addition to vaccine side effects experienced by some individuals, another significant concern with the national vaccination plan is the risk of individuals who have been vaccinated may transmit the vaccinia virus, the cowpox virus used in the vaccine, to others.

With the chance of spreading vaccinia virus to an at-risk patient population many U.S. hospitals, including VUMC, have chosen to wait until the threat of disease is imminent before vaccinating their staff.

VUMC's latest smallpox vaccine study will examine the effectiveness of three different types of bandages and their ability to contain virus shed from the vaccine site.

Two previous smallpox vaccine studies at VUMC were conducted to determine whether decades-old vaccine is still viable, even when diluted, and to determine a dilution of the vaccine that still remains effective.

A sub-study of VUMC's second smallpox vaccine trial examined the effectiveness of one type of bandage at containing the virus.

"With this vaccine we set up an infection on the patient's arm, which is unlike any other vaccine we give. The patient gets an active viral response to a virus that's a cousin of smallpox. The risk is that this virus on the vaccine site can be transmitted to others and cause infection," said Dr. Tom Talbot, instructor in medicine in the division of infectious diseases. "The vaccinia virus is not as virulent as smallpox, but the risk is always there."