ATLANTA (Reuters) – Spurred by heightened concerns of bioterrorist attacks on the United States, federal health experts on Monday recommended that a campaign of targeted vaccinations and selected quarantine be used as the first line of defense in the event of an outbreak of the highly contagious and lethal smallpox virus.

In an interim report outlining its strategy to cope with a possible future smallpox emergency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was essential that anyone infected or suspected to be infected with the virus be isolated during an outbreak.

Rings of personal contacts, such as family members and co-workers, would then be vaccinated and monitored, the CDC said in its report. The strategy, dubbed ring vaccination, is credited with helping to wipe out smallpox in the late 1970s.

“This (approach) really then produces a buffer of immune individuals and was shown to prevent smallpox and to ultimately eradicate this disease,” said Dr. Harold Margolis, the CDC’s senior advisor for smallpox preparedness.

Although worldwide vaccination programs wiped out smallpox, fears that the virus could be used as a germ warfare agent gained prominence after the Sept. 11 attacks by hijackers and a subsequent outbreak of anthrax bacteria linked to contaminated mail.

Five people in the United States have died of anthrax and 13 others have been infected in an outbreak that began last month in Florida. The CDC lists another five cases in New York and New Jersey as suspected anthrax.

Many health officials now view the anthrax outbreak as a wake-up call for the far greater threat of smallpox, which the CDC described on Monday as having the potential to overwhelm existing medical and public health systems.

Smallpox, which is spread through person-to-person contact, kills about 30 percent of its victims and scars the remainder for life. Vaccination programs ended shortly after the last case was reported in Somalia in 1977, meaning untold millions today have no immunity to the virus.

The World Health Organization persuaded most governments to give up their stocks of smallpox, but the United States and Soviet Union kept samples under lock and key. Nations such as Iraq and North Korea may also possess small stores of the virus.

Following the murderous Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced plans to stockpile 300 million doses of smallpox vaccine to be able to immunize everyone in the United States.

The current stockpile is about 15 million doses.

Although health officials are loath to conduct a mass vaccination program due to concerns about side-effects, they said doses of the vaccines could be delivered within hours of an outbreak.

“The vaccine could be made immediately available,” Dr. Lisa Rotz, a CDC bioterrorism expert, said.

© Copyright Reuters 2001. All rights reserved.

Written by Paul Simao for Reuters, and published on DrKelley.info, November 29, 2001. Embedded links may no longer be active (Ed. 12.30.10)

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