Word: smallpox
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...SMALLPOX IMMUNITY Just because you were vaccinated against smallpox as a child doesn't mean you would be protected in the event of a bioterrorism attack now. That's the conclusion of a study in which researchers revaccinated more than 300 microbiologists whose work put them at risk of infection. It turns out that 9 out of 10 of the microbiologists developed swelling, blisters and scabs at the new inoculation site--all telltale signs that their prior immunity had disappeared...
...According to Health and Human Services official Jerome Hauer, the number of emergency-supply caches ready to be deployed to U.S. cities in the event of an attack has increased from eight to 12; by the end of the year, the government expects to have enough doses of the smallpox vaccine to supply every American in the event of an outbreak; and the U.S. is producing new supplies of the anthrax vaccine...
Here's another paradox: the U.S. government is about to spend $850 million to make sure there's enough smallpox vaccine to protect every man, woman and child against the theoretical risk of a bioterrorist attack. Yet at the same time it's having trouble protecting kids from the clear and present danger of tetanus and meningitis...
...inevitably sweep up healthy people. And what happens when they refuse to be held? You're going to have Kent State all over again." The alternative, though, may be just as grim. In Maine, warns deputy attorney general Linda Pistner, there's nothing to stop someone with smallpox from walking out of the hospital. "Without this tool," she asks, "how else can we minimize the loss of life...
...SMALLPOX When a smallpox attack looked like a real possibility last fall, smallpox vaccines were in desperately short supply. Or were they? U.S. officials announced last week that the 15.4 million freeze-dried doses left over from the early '70s can be diluted fivefold--stretching the stockpile to more than 75 million--and still remain potent. Meanwhile, a French drug company offered up a forgotten cache of 85 million more doses. That should tide us over until year's end, when new vaccines...