Using The Smallpox Vaccine

With America on alert about possible biological warfare, people are concerned that the current supply of the smallpox vaccine is far too small. The Early Show's Dr. Emily Senay reports on what needs to be decided when it comes to smallpox vaccination.

Smallpox is caused by the variola virus., one of the deadliest diseases the world has known. It's highly infectious and kills about a third of the people infected.

The smallpox vaccine enabled the world to eradicate the disease. But once we got rid of it, we stopped routine vaccinations. Since the protective effect wears off over time, everyone is now vulnerable again. The concern is that smallpox could somehow fall into the hands of terrorists.

The question then is, who should get vaccinated and when. It's a choice between widespread routine vaccination or vaccination of those who would actually come into contact with it during a hypothetical attack. Another option is vaccinating health-care workers right away. They are the 'first responders' who would be the first ones to treat people in the event of an attack.

The smallpox vaccine is one of the most dangerous vaccines to use. If everyone is vaccinated in the country routinely, it's estimated that hundreds of people would die each year and thousands would become severely ill.

Even the more common side effects include fever, headache, nausea, muscle aches, lesions, pain and swelling.

Right now, the only people who are routinely vaccinated are a handful of researchers who work directly with the virus. If there was an attack or an outbreak of smallpox, health officials would use the current vaccine supply to inoculate only the people directly exposed and those who came into contact with them. Health workers or "first responders" who treat those infected or exposed would also be vaccinated.

To give people a choice of whether or not they want to be vaccinated would be problematic because the virus used in the vaccine is also contagious and dangerous to those who decide not to be vaccinated.

Also, even though there are stockpiles of vaccine, there is not enough for everybody. Researchers say that we can dilute the existing stocks to provide enough vaccine to combat a smallpox attack. The New England Journal of Medicine study found that the smallpox vaccine is effective when it's diluted five to 10-fold and the US currently has 15 million doses of the vaccine stockpiled

The government has ordered up enough vaccine for everybody in the country, but that won't be available until the end of the year. As many as 90 million doses of the smallpox vaccine were found in France so the U.S. government hopes to get access to the French supply.