CDC advisers lobby for 'ring containment' smallpox vaccine.(Brief Article)

2002 JUL 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Five doctors advising the federal government on its smallpox vaccination policy appear unanimous in their opposition to a mass inoculation of all Americans, arguing the chances of a terrorist smallpox attack are remote and the vaccine is harmful to many people.

The consensus of the panelists and the estimated 75 people attending the meeting - including about a dozen who addressed the doctors during a public forum - was that mass inoculation currently makes no sense.

"The smallpox vaccine has significant side effects," Dr. Duc Vugia of the California Department of Health told the advisers. "We are concerned that use in the general population will cause more harm than good."

Scientists believe that if everyone were vaccinated, an estimated 180 to 400 people would die from the inoculation. Thousands more would likely suffer side effects ranging from rashes to encephalitis.

Two studies released in March 2002 by the New England Journal of Medicine found that out of more than 700 previously unvaccinated young adults, one-third had pain bad enough to miss school, work or other activities after being inoculated. While no one in the study fell seriously ill, fever, headache, nausea, muscle aches, lesions and swelling were fairly common.

The smallpox vaccine is so toxic that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would likely refuse to approve it if not for the bioterrorism threat, said Dr. Lucy Tompkins, a Stanford University medical professor who was one of the five panelists. The FDA is expected to approve the smallpox vaccine by late 2003 or early 2004.

Tompkins and her fellow panelists appeared ready to ...