ER workers ready for vaccine.

2003 JAN 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a town known for high-stakes gambling, Suzanne Lau is ready to risk a small chance of injury and even death to be vaccinated against smallpox. A nurse at one of the city's busiest emergency rooms, she probably will be among the first Americans in three decades to be offered the vaccine.

She does not betray any of the angst that has consumed federal officials now completing vaccination plans for the nation.

"It's what you do. It's part of the risk of the job," said Lau, whose hospital ID hangs on a red, white and blue cord, stamped USA, around her neck. "We're here to take care of the patients. That's the bottom line."

The government is preparing for the possibility of a bioterror attack that would use smallpox, a deadly and incurable virus, but President Bush has yet to say who will be offered the vaccine.

The plan being considered would offer the inoculation first to those most likely to come in contact with a contagious smallpox patient; that would be people assigned to special smallpox response teams in each state, and those who work in hospital emergency rooms. In total, they expect about a half-million vaccinations during this first stage.

It will put emergency rooms such as University Medical Center's at the forefront of that readiness effort. If there were to be an attack, doctors at the Las Vegas facility also would be responsible for spotting smallpox, a particular challenge given that the disease has not been seen in this country for half a century.

For now, the issue is vaccination.