Doctors won't get smallpox vaccine. (ACIP Says Risks Outweigh Benefits).(Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices)

ATLANTA -- The risk of exposure to smallpox is too small--and the risk posed by the vaccine too great--to justify vaccinating most physicians and other health care providers at this time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided at its annual summer meeting.

In the absence of an act of smallpox bioterrorism, ACIP recommended against vaccinating physicians other than those on designated "smallpox response teams" and selected personnel in facilities to be designated as smallpox referral centers--called Type C centers.

In the absence of an actual bioterrorist attack using smallpox on U.S. soil, the general public would not be vaccinated.

ACIP's recommendations must be approved by the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Smallpox response teams would be trained to investigate suspected smallpox cases and establish control measures. Teams might include medical epidemiologists, laboratory scientists, and security/law enforcement personnel. Each state would establish one or more such teams.

Type C centers would provide care to smallpox cases, and selected physicians, nurses, and possibly other support personnel at those centers would receive the vaccine.

In all, the new vaccinees under the ACIP recommendations would number approximately 10,000-20,000 people, according to Dr. Joel Kuritsky, director of the…