Study Will Try Smaller Vaccine Dose.(Brief Article)

2001 NOV 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers are beginning a large new study to see if they can dilute the nation's small stockpile of smallpox vaccine to make it stretch farther in case of a bioterrorist attack.

Fresh batches of vaccine are on order, but experts hope that adding more liquid to the existing supply will be a temporary solution at least until those begin to arrive next summer.

The need for protection against the disease, which has been eradicated in its natural form, has become more pressing since the September 11 terrorist attacks. There is no treatment for smallpox, and routine vaccinations ceased in the United States in 1972 because it was no longer considered a threat. Most people vaccinated before then have lost their resistance to the virus.

Some experts fear that smallpox manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 1980s for biowarfare may have been obtained by rogue nations and could be used in bioterrorist attacks.

The government has 15.4 million doses of smallpox vaccine stockpiled at secret warehouses around the country. Researchers at four institutions will test whether the vaccine can be diluted to one-fifth and one-tenth of their standard dosage and still prevent infection.

"It's a very quick way to markedly expand the amount of vaccine that we already have, which on face value in the undiluted form would not be a lot. It's prudent to be prepared," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, which is funding the experiment. If the approach works, Fauci said the diluted vaccine could be ready by the end of this year.

However, diluting the vaccine is not meant ...