SmallPox Vaccine: You heard it here first

[ptbyjason]

I started typing this without realizing that I didn't have my paper describing the full details, but I promise I will get a hold of the details and let everyone know what they are.

Ok, I just found out that my smallpox vaccine has taken today. I am one of 800 people in the US that are involved in an experimental study to find out how they can stretch out the vaccine. From what I recall they are doing this experiment in 3 locations around the US. Baylor medical school in Houston is one of them. They are giving one of 3 kinds of vaccines to us.

The original vaccine
1/5 th dilution of the original
1/10 th dilution of the original

I have no idea which one I recieved but after recieving it last Tuesday, I found out that it was a success today. The idea behind the experiment is to stretch out the little bit of vaccine that exists in the US. I will find the full details of everything and type it for you if you are interested.

[EXCESS]

Glad to hear that it took! Lets just hope you'll never need it.

[ptbyjason]

Yeah, let's hope no one needs it. It is cool helping out the cause, but it is kind of scary that we are having to do this because of the risk.

[EXCESS]

I've heard a few stories about what happens to some people when the vaccine doesn't take. Very rare, but a couple people have died in the past. You're past that stage though, so I'm not trying to freak you out.

[ptbyjason]

I think I am clear of the death risk now, but I know the worst side effects will be in about 5 - 7 days. Some people have had constant headaches, itching, and various other problems (I will list all the side effects when I find my sheet on this). So far I haven't had a single problem.

[pureanger]

How does this work I thought when I was a kid I was vaccinated against small pox

[ptbyjason]

all vaccines that were given to kids is no longer effective. No one is vaccinated agains smallpox in the US at this time.

[pureanger]

So the one I got means nothing I have this scar on my delt for nothing

[ptbyjason]

You are correct, sorry to dissapoint you.

[ptbyjason]

Here is an article I found about small pox. I hope to have the info on the experiment tomorrow night.

U.S. Details Response to Smallpox
Cities Could Be Quarantined and Public Events Banned

By Justin Gillis and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 27, 2001; Page A01


If bioterrorists attack the United States with smallpox virus, health authorities could impose measures as drastic as banning public events, halting regional transport and placing entire cities under quarantine, according to a draft federal plan released yesterday.

The plan, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calls for stepped-up awareness by doctors, health officials and the public to be able to detect any outbreak of smallpox, a disease officially eradicated from the planet 21 years ago -- and to be able to respond quickly enough to stop it before a pandemic can sweep the nation.

Prompted by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the anthrax scare that followed, the plan is the federal government's most detailed description since 1972 of how authorities might respond to an outbreak of smallpox. Overall, the plan drew praise from several experts yesterday.

However, one aspect of the plan drew immediate criticism from some state health officers. The CDC has vaccinated 80 to 100 of its employees against smallpox so they can respond to an attack, but the draft plan rules out any broader campaign to vaccinate state workers, who might be the first to respond to an outbreak.

In making that judgment, the CDC noted that vaccine supplies are limited. It said the federal government could rush vaccines to a state and inoculate state employees as soon as an outbreak is confirmed. Vaccination is effective even after exposure to the smallpox virus, if given within a few days.

"The point is that this vaccine works once exposed, so those people who would go out and respond to a confirmed case would in fact be vaccinated essentially as they're going out the door," said Harold Margolis, senior adviser for smallpox preparedness at the CDC. "At that point, they are protected."

But several state health commissioners said yesterday the plan does not take into account the worst-case scenario: simultaneous smallpox attacks in multiple cities, overwhelming the CDC. In such an event, they said, unvaccinated state nurses and state police would be on the front lines trying to contain the epidemic.

"You need to go in and talk to the person who has smallpox" to identify contacts, said Georges C. Benjamin, Maryland's health secretary, who is president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. "That process starts at 3 o'clock in the morning. That process doesn't start 24 to 48 hours later, when the team gets there from Atlanta [where the CDC is located]."

In an attack on multiple cities, "CDC in their role as the cavalry will simply not be able to go to all those places," said Leslie M. Beitsch, Oklahoma's health commissioner and chairman of a state health officers' association task force on bioterrorism. "If we can't have our first responders protected, then we risk chaos and panic."

The state health officers are expected to press the CDC to reconsider its decision, if not now then in the next few months, as more smallpox vaccine becomes available. At the moment, supplies are limited to an aging national stockpile of about 15 million doses in Pennsylvania. The government has asked companies to re-launch production of the smallpox vaccine, aiming to build a stockpile of 300 million doses in a year.

Although the CDC plan would permit large-scale quarantine, that would be a last resort, employed only if other control measures were failing. The heart of the plan is the classic "ring vaccination" strategy used to eradicate smallpox a generation ago.

That strategy depends on quickly spotting a case of smallpox, isolating the initial patients, and identifying and vaccinating others who might have caught the virus from them. Public health workers would continue to identify possibly infected people by considering ever-larger rings of people centered around the earliest cases.

"The main thing you want to do is try to get as much vaccine used in the place where it's going to do the most good -- that is, around the contact of a case and around the families of those contacts, so if they do come down with a disease, there's a barrier around them," said Donald A. Henderson, who led the global campaign that eradicated smallpox and who is now director of health preparedness at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Local officials would try to locate people thought to have been exposed on a train or at a sports stadium, Henderson said. Should locating them prove impossible, he said, health officials would be forced to consider a broader vaccination program, such as inoculating a large group -- even a whole city.

If early control efforts fail or an initial outbreak is sufficiently large, still more aggressive measures might be necessary, the plan says. In the most extreme case, federal and state authority would be used to erect a "cordon sanitaire" -- a sanitary ring -- around a city or other large area. Control of a big outbreak "may require suspension of large public gatherings, closing of public places, restriction of travel" and other measures, according to the plan.

The last smallpox case in the United States occurred in 1949, and the last naturally occurring case in the world occurred in Somalia in 1977. The eradication of the disease, which the World Health Organization declared in 1980, is considered to be one of medicine's greatest achievements.

But as a result of the disease's eradication, vaccination has stopped. No one under 30 is immune to the disease, and older people who were vaccinated as children are believed to have only limited immunity.

Although a CDC lab in Atlanta and a Russian lab in Siberia are the only official repositories of the virus, many experts fear a handful of countries, such as Iraq and North Korea, may have secret stashes that could wind up in terrorists' hands.

A single case of smallpox would be an international health emergency of the highest order. The CDC plan makes clear that if an attack occurred in the United States, avoiding mass panic would be a challenge.

"In the event of a bioterrorism event involving smallpox, the level of threat perceived by the public -- whether real or imagined -- may be extreme," the guidelines warn. "In these circumstances, state and local health officials should be prepared for a high level of demand for vaccine by the public."



© 2001 The Washington Post Company

[ptbyjason]

Side effects today have been itching at the spot for the first time. I have heard of one person breaking out in a mysterious rash recently as well.

[EXCESS]

Originally posted by ptbyjason
Side effects today have been itching at the spot for the first time. I have heard of one person breaking out in a mysterious rash recently as well.

It sounds like your side effects are minor. Thats good!

[ptbyjason]

By Julie Appleby, USA TODAY

U.S. health officials want to know how much drugmakers would charge for up to 500 million doses of a smallpox vaccine — twice the amount initially sought — government documents show. The documents do not say whether the U.S. would buy or otherwise acquire those additional doses, or spell out how they would be used.A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would not comment Tuesday on any aspect of negotiations ongoing with three drug companies until contracts are awarded, which could occur as early as today.

Previously, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said the government is negotiating to buy 250 million doses of the vaccine, enough for "every man, woman and child" in America.
But in the opening pages of a lengthy "request for proposals" sent to drug companies in the current round of negotiations, the government asks for price information on an additional 250 million doses under a clause labeled "options."

The clause gives the government the option to purchase or otherwise obtain the additional doses. Thompson has asked Congress for $509 million for the vaccine, but that may not cover even 250 million doses. Bids came in above $2 a dose, but less than $8 each, Thompson said earlier this month.

Health officials aren't planning a mass immunization campaign but say they want the vaccine in case terrorists cause an outbreak.

Price is likely a part of the ongoing talks with Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Baxter International, which is working in conjunction with Acambis, a British firm already under contract to produce 54 million doses of the vaccine.

If the government exercises the option to acquire even more of the vaccine, it would probably do so over several years to replenish the nation's stockpile, replace expired doses or share the vaccine with other countries, sources close to the negotiations say.

[ptbyjason]

A primer on symptoms, infections

[ptbyjason]

11/08/2001 - Updated 09:30 AM ET



Smallpox: Contagious, but not necessarily deadly

By Anita Manning, USA TODAY

Among the microbes that could be used as a weapon of bioterrorism, smallpox virus is one of the most feared. Here, experts provide answers to some questions about the disease.

Q: What are the symptoms?

A: After about two weeks of incubation, symptoms begin: high fever, headache, backache and nausea. A rash begins in the mouth and throat and on the face and forearms; in two to three days, it forms pustules. Eight or nine days after the rash begins, pustules form scabs that eventually fall off. If the patient survives, he or she is left with pitted scars, usually on the face.

Q: Is it always fatal?

A: No. The most severe type, variola major, kills about 30% of its victims, usually within two weeks of the first symptoms. The lesser form, variola minor, causes milder illness and kills about 1% of victims.

Q: Is it contagious?

A: Smallpox is passed from person to person, through the air, on virus-infected droplets expelled by patients who cough or sneeze. Experts say close contact usually is required to transmit infection, but there are exceptions. In a report from Germany, a patient with a cough was in isolation but infected people on three floors of a hospital. Patients aren't infectious until lesions appear on the throat and skin, and are most infectious during the first week of the rash.

Q: Can I get vaccinated?

A: No, routine vaccination stopped in 1972 because the risk of dying from complications of the vaccine was greater than the risk of contracting the disease. U.S. health officials say they have 15.4 million doses on hand, and tests are under way to see if that can be diluted to provide 77 million doses. Last week, health officials said they are negotiating with drug firms for 300 million more doses by next year.

Q: When more vaccine is available, will I be able to get it?

A: Only if there is an outbreak and you are among those who may have been exposed. When given within four days of exposure, the vaccine may prevent disease or reduce its severity. But it may have side effects. In the days of universal vaccination, about two of every million died from the vaccine.

Q: If I was vaccinated when I was a kid, am I still covered?

A: Studies suggest that people immunized 50 years ago or more still have some protection. When it comes to smallpox vaccine, the immune system appears to have a long memory. "Even if you're over 50 years old and saw the vaccine when you were a child, the risk of dying from infection is much less than if you've never seen the vaccine," says smallpox expert James LeDuc of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. LeDuc says the CDC this month will rewrite a section of its Web site to better explain the issue of residual immunity. Currently, the Web site states that smallpox vaccine protects for only three to five years.



Q: How likely is smallpox to be used in bioterrorism?

A: It's impossible to quantify, but even the most sober experts say it's possible. "It scares me," admits virologist Don Francis, president of VaxGen, a California company working on an AIDS vaccine. "It's a dangerous disease, and we have little immunity. But it's so visible, we'd be able to stop it as long as the first cases came to a physician who recognizes he's never seen anything like it and brought in someone like me."

Q: Is our public health system up to that task?

A: It's getting there. Microbiologist James Snyder of the University of Louisville School of Medicine says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has organized a national network of labs and instituted a system to respond to bioterrorism. "We're more aware and are starting to prepare at a faster pace," he says. "I was concerned, and am still somewhat concerned, that we're still behind in our preparation. There's been an 'it's not going to happen here' mentality. The reality is it has happened, it can continue, and now folks are beginning to prepare and take it seriously.

Q: If the disease was eradicated, why is it still a threat?

A: In 1980, the World Health Assembly announced that smallpox had been eradicated and recommended that all countries cease vaccination. Currently, the United States and Russia are the only countries to officially have stocks of the virus and there have been worldwide calls to eliminate even these remaining stocks. But many experts fear secret stores of smallpox still exist and could be used by "rogue" nations or terrorist groups. Some also argue that studies of live smallpox virus continue to help scientists better understand how the organism attacks the immune system and how the body responds.

[ptbyjason]

Monday, Oct. 29, 11 a.m. ET

Smallpox is the only infectious disease in human history to be eradicated. In the past few weeks, however, some in the medical and defense communities have expressed concern that clandestine stocks of weaponized variola virus could be used by terrorists or rogue states against civilians. Talk about the threat with Dr. Jonathan Tucker, author of Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox.

Dr. Jonathan B. Tucker is the Director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies.



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Ga. : If an epidimic were to break out what can you do to protect yourself from getting it until there is a vacine available for you to get?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: In the case of smallpox, the disease does not become contagious until the infected person develops a visible skin rash, roughly two weeks after infection. Thus, it should be possible for the health authorities to isolate such individuals so that they do not spread the disease to others. People who do come in contact with a contagious person can be protected from developing the disease if they are vaccinated up to three days after exposure.

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Clayton GA : What is currently available for civilians in the US if an outbreak of smallpox would occur? Why doesn't the government start doing something now, before it happens???

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: Smallpox vaccine is not currently available to the general public. However, the U.S. government is testing whether the current supply of roughly 7.5 million doses can be expanded by dilution, and is also acquiring up to 300 million additional doses. Because of the risks of complications associated with smallpox vaccine, it is unlikely that it would be administered prophylactically, but only if and when cases of the disease are diagnosed.

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Bothell WA : I was vaccinated against smallpox in 1944 or 1945, supposedly "for life". Now I am led to believe that this vaccination will no longer protect me. Is this true? Should I have more concerns about other types of diseases?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: People who were vaccinated against smallpox once as children acquired protective immunity for roughly seven to ten years. Those who were vaccinated more than once probably acquired longer-lasting immunity, but little reliable information is available on the duration of protection.

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Atlanta, GA : Is smallpox curable with medications?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: No drugs for treating smallpox are currently available. The federal Centers for Disease Control currently have a research program under way to screen a wide variety of existing anti-viral drugs as possible treatments for the disease. Although a few promising drug candidates for treating smallpox have been identified, it will take several years for them to be tested and approved for therapeutic use. In the unlikely event of a smallpox outbreak, the vaccine could be used therapeutically to treat people up to three or four days after exposure.

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Cincinnati, Ohio : Should Halloween be cancelled? I am concerned that small pox my be placed in candy around Halloween at the point of production, in transport to stores, on grocery shelves, by terrorists putting it in candy bowls as they trick or treat, or passing infected candy out.

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: Smallpox and most other disease of bioterrorist concern are not transmitted in food but rather through the air. Because of the risk that unwrapped Halloween candy might be poisoned or otherwise tampered with, however, it is advisable to distribute and accept only those types of candy that come in sealed wrappers.

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Marion, Ohio : What can we as individuals do to be prepared for the possibility of the use of smallpox as a weapon? Are there any preparations we should be making to help us should such a situation arise?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: There is little that individuals can do to be prepared for the extremely unlikely event of a smallpox outbreak, except for being vigilant and reporting suspicious activities to the local police. Moreover, if you observe a rash of blisters on someone's face accompanied by fever, particularly in an adult, you should notify your local health department.

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The Hague, The Netherlands : Dr. Tucker: The United States and others have have reached an impass in their negotiation of verification measures for the Biological Weapons Conveniton. Do you believe any provisions they could agree to could reduce the threat of bio-terrorism? And if so, which ones?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: The Biological Weapons Convention is aimed primarily at preventing the acquisition and possession of these weapons by states, rather than terrorists. Still, it is important to devise measures to reinforce the legal and moral norm enshrined in the BWC. Although the Bush administration has rejected further negotiation of a BWC compliance protocol, the U.S. delegation plans to introduce a package of alternative measures at the upcoming BWC Review Conference in November. Desirable measures could include efforts to limit access by unauthorized individuals to dangerous pathogens, to criminalize the possession and use of biological agents under international law, and to establish an international mechanism for investigating allegations of biological weapons use and suspicious outbreaks of disease.

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Birmingham Alabama : Is there any moniterring of Grad Students who work this diesese? I have a friend who works in Bio lab and claims it is far too easy to take this stuff out of a lab.

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: Current regulations controlling access to dangerous pathogens are too lax and need to be tightened up. Under existing rules, laboratories need only report to the federal Centers for Disease Control when they transfer dangerous pathogens to another lab. But legislation currently under consideration in Congress would require all labs that possess such pathogens to register with the CDC, undergo inspections, and report periodically on the status of their culture collections. This legislation has so far been passed by the House and has considerable support in the Senate.

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Mt. Airy, Md. : How long would it take U.S. pharmacutical companies to make enough vaccine for everyone?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: With respect to smallpox vaccine, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson recently announced his plan to acquire a stockpile of 300 million doses of vaccine within the next year, or enough for the entire U.S. population. Anthrax vaccine is unlikely to be produced in such large quantities, but fortunately anthrax can be treated with antibiotics.

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Hefei,China : Will the boilogical attack in the U.S.A last very long? Or it will be eradicated by the goverment very soon?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: The attacks with anthrax-contaminated letters appear to be continuing, and until the perpetrators are identified, the threat is likely to persist. To date, however, relatively few people have been infected with the deadly inhalation form of the disease, and those treated promptly have responded well to antibiotics.

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Hollister, California : Why are we not getting the shot now to avoid this in the future?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: In the case of anthrax, the current vaccine requires six shots over a period of 18 months to produce immunity, and hence is not suitable for administration to the general public. Instead, the disease is being treated effectively with antibiotics. With respect to smallpox, the vaccine is associated with a significant risk of complications and hence would probably be administered in a targeted manner only to those people exposed to the disease, were an outbreak to occur.

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Dallas, TX : How much could the smallpox vaccine be safely diluted? (or is this not really known?) What is it that actually kills a person from smallpox? Are antibiotics effective against smallpox?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: Clinical trials are currently under way to determine the degree to which the current stocks of smallpox vaccine can be safely diluted, while still providing good immunity. It seems likely that a five-fold dilution should be possible, significantly increasing the available supply and providing a stop-gap until additional stocks of the vaccine become available. The most deadly form of smallpox killed about a third of its victims, but the cause of death is poorly understood. It appears to have involved a breakdown of the immune system. No antiviral drug treatments are currently available for smallpox. (Antibiotics only work against bacterial diseases such as anthrax; smallpox is a viral disease.)

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Houston, Texas : Is there a danger of death from adverse reaction to smallox vaccine?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: Yes. Before 1972, when children in the United States were routinely vaccinated against smallpox before school entry, an average of 1 or 2 per million developed severe complications such as encephalitis, resulting in brain damage or death.

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Houston, Tx : How really dangerous is smallpox, and is there any kind of medication that would kill the virus, prevent people from dying.

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: The most deadly form of smallpox killed about a third of its victims. Roughly one in ten were blinded in one or both eyes, and nearly all survivors were scarred for life.

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Mason, OH : How long does an innoculation last? I was innoculated in the 60's -- still good?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: The duration of immunity from vaccination depends on the vaccine and the number of times one was vaccinated. In the case of smallpox, people who received only one shot in childhood were protected for only about ten years, but those who received at least one "booster" acquired longer-lasting immunity. Whether such residual immunity would still protect against infection today, however, is not known.

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Glendora, Ca : Is it possible that Iraq has made a "hybrid" virus that combines The Ebola virus and Smallpox that enters the body as Smallpox and kills the host with the Ebloa virus. If true would the Smallpox vaccine kill the Ebola virus as well as the Smallpox virus?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: Although Ken Alibek, a Soviet defector, has claimed that scientists at a Soviet lab called "Vector" were attempting to develop a hybrid of Ebola and smallpox, there is no good evidence to indicate that they were successful. Iraq does not appear to have engaged in research of this type. Unless a form of smallpox virus were deliberately engineered to make it vaccine-resistant, it is likely that the current vaccine would be effective.

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Alexandria, VA : There is the perception that a single person with smallpox could eradicate a large group of people. Could a "suicide carrier" in fact pass smallpox onto everyone he/she came in contact with- say at a football game?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: No. To transmit the disease, an individual with active smallpox (who would have a high fever and a facial rash) would have to come into fairly close contact with others, i.e. within 4-5 feet. Breathing near someone is not sufficient to transmit the virus; instead, one must talk or cough to emit tiny droplets containing the virus that float in the air and can be inhaled by others.

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houston, tx : You say the government is acquiring up to 300 million additional doses. Where will these doses come from? And, how long will it take to create these doses?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: So far, the U.S. government has issued a contract to a pharmaceutical company called Acambis to produce 54 million doses of smallpox vaccine. In addition, the federal government is negotiating with several other U.S. pharmaceutical firms to produce an additional 250 million doses by the end of 2002 or early 2003.

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Pittsburgh, Pa. : As a deaf person, a scientist and educator...I am a little concerned about getting accurate information about infectious disease to the deaf and those with hearing loss. Any suggestions since trying to get the CDC to meet this need has proven impossible up til now?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: I suggest that you check out the CDC web site, which has extensive information on infectious diseases. The web address is www.cdc.gov. For detailed information on smallpox, the World Health Organization has a new web site at the following URL:
www.who.int/emc/diseases/smallpox/index.html.

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Tacoma, Washington : If the last case of recorded smallbox was close to 30 years ago, could the virus actually survive for all this time?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: The smallpox virus only infects human beings and hence does not have an animal reservoir in nature. However, samples of the virus can survive almost indefinitely if kept frozen in liquid nitrogen. Two official repositories of the smallpox virus have been authorized by the World Health Organization at the CDC in Atlanta and the Vector laboratory in Russia. Whether these stocks should be destroyed at the end of 2002 is a matter of ongoing debate.

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Philadelphia, PA : Can smallpox be effectively treated after symptoms appear?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: No. Once the fever and skin rash of smallpox have appeared, after a roughly two-week incubation period, the disease is no longer treatable by vaccination. No drug therapies for smallpox are currently available.

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Pomona, CA : Is it possible that strains of smallpox have been developed that are resistant our current vaccinations? If so, how would we handle such an outbreak?

Dr. Jonathan Tucker: No evidence suggests that vaccine-resistant strains of smallpox virus have been developed, although the Soviet biological weapons program made a preliminary effort to do so. If a vaccine-resistant strain were ever to be created, it would be necessary to develop a new vaccine or drug therapy.

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Comment from Dr. Jonathan Tucker: Thank you very much for your excellent questions.

[ptbyjason]

Government to buy 155 million doses from British firm


MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Nov. 28 — The Bush administration signed a contract Wednesday to buy 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine from a British firm in case terrorists try to spread the deadly virus. The contract with Acambis Inc. will bring the nation’s stockpile to 286 million doses of the vaccine by the end of next year, promising protection for every American should bioterrorists ever attack with the all-but-extinct virus.

THE VACCINE can be administered four days after exposure to smallpox, and officials have no plans to resume the routine vaccinations of Americans that ceased in 1972.
The government already has 15.4 million doses of smallpox vaccine on hand, and each of them will be diluted to create five doses, bringing the on-hand total to 77 million. Researchers are now studying whether each dose could be further diluted, to get 10 doses from each existing one.
An additional 54 million doses have already been ordered from Acambis and are expected to be delivered next year. The contract also gives the federal government the option to purchase even more vaccine quickly.
The new contract will cost the government $428 million, or $2.76 per dose. That’s less than the $509 million that the Bush administration has asked from Congress to pay for the new vaccine.
The initial budget request assumed that the government would need to buy 250 million doses, but new research has found that the existing vaccine can safely be diluted, meaning much less new vaccine is needed.
“While the probability of an intentional release of the smallpox virus is low, the risk does exist and we must be prepared,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement.
“Expanding our stockpile so there is a smallpox vaccine for every American if needed prepares us to respond aggressively to minimize the spread of the disease should an outbreak occur. Additionally, we hope that increasing our smallpox vaccine stockpile would serve as a deterrent to those who might consider using smallpox as a weapon against us.”
Smallpox hasn’t occurred in the United States since 1949 and was declared eradicated from the globe in 1980. But bioterrorism experts worry that the virus could be obtained by terrorists and intentionally released in the general population.
Acambis will produce the smallpox vaccine using a purified strain of vaccinia virus grown in live tissue culture. Vaccinia, a virus related to smallpox, stimulates immunity to the smallpox virus.
The bulk vaccine will be produced in in Europe and then be shipped to the United States for refinement and processing. The Food and Drug Administration will test lots of vaccine to assure the safety and effectiveness.

[EXCESS]

Thanks, now I'm a smallpox expert.

[ptbyjason]

sorry, I found the articles and thought I might share. I have the papers from the experimental study in front of me right now. I might type them after I get through working out.

[EXCESS]

I was serious, I read every word and learned a lot. Keep 'em comin'.

[ptbyjason]

Latest symptoms

At the spot that it was administered: Swelling, redness, pain, and itching.

The rest of the body: Fever, rash, headaches, restlessness (all night), nausea.

Unusual symptoms: Small colonies of the small pox vaccine have started developing within 1/8 to 1/2 of an inch. I now have 3 total colonies. I don't know if I will have 3 scars now or not, but this is not common at all.


I heard the study was online, so I am going to try to find it and post it here. That way I don't have to type it. I will also try to get pics, just so you know.

[ptbyjason]

Found this shortened description, no typing for me
If anyone has read this far down the thread and has any questions regarding this study, I can give you as much detail as you want. I am participating at the Baylor location.

Source: MSNBC

U.S. studies diluting smallpox shots

Measure aimed at stretching small stockpile of vaccine


ASSOCIATED PRESS

BETHESDA, Md., Oct. 12 — Researchers are beginning a large new study to see if they can dilute the nation’s small stockpile of smallpox vaccine to make it stretch further in case of a bioterrorist attack.

FRESH BATCHES of vaccine are on order, but experts hope that adding more liquid to the existing supply will be a temporary solution at least until those begin to arrive next summer.

The need for protection against the disease, which has been eradicated in its natural form, has become more pressing since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. There is no treatment for smallpox, and routine vaccinations ceased in the United States in 1972 because it was no longer considered a threat. Most people vaccinated before then have lost their resistance to the virus.

Some experts fear that smallpox manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 1980s for biowarfare may have been obtained by rogue nations and could be used in bioterrorist attacks.

The government has 15.4 million doses of smallpox vaccine stockpiled at secret warehouses around the country. Researchers at four institutions will test whether the vaccine can be diluted to one-fifth and one-tenth of the standard dosage and still prevent infection.

“It’s a very quick way to markedly expand the amount of vaccine that we already have, which on face value in the undiluted form would not be a lot. It’s prudent to be prepared,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, which is funding the experiment.

If the approach works, Fauci said the diluted vaccine could be ready by the end of this year.

However, diluting the vaccine is not meant to be an alternative to the new doses in production, said Dr. Sharon Frey, the lead researcher on the smallpox study at St. Louis University. “This is a stopgap measure to make more doses available until that new vaccine is developed.”

Over a 2½-month period beginning next month, researchers at St. Louis, the University of Maryland, the University of Rochester and Baylor College of Medicine will study 684 adults under the age of 32 who have never been vaccinated for smallpox. They will see if the diluted vaccines trigger production of protective antibodies and create a telltale scab.

In a pilot study last year on 20 people, researchers used vaccines diluted by 10 times and by 100 times. The one-tenth doses produced a significant number of positive results, while the doses that were 100 times weaker had little effect.

Anything that would increase the country’s limited stockpile is an improvement, said Dr. Neal Halsey, who studies vaccines at Johns Hopkins University.

“I am sure there is nowhere near enough smallpox vaccine to provide it to everyone in the country and even those who would be exposed in a large incident,” he said.

Smallpox is a viral disease that causes high fevers, rashes and sores that cover the body. The disease is fatal in about a third of cases.

While inhaled anthrax is much more lethal, killing roughly 90 percent of patients, it isn’t contagious. Smallpox released in a bioterror attack, however, could spread rapidly throughout a population and infect thousands because it is passed through the air.

More on the smallpox threat

Smallpox is an effective bioweapon, both because it kills 30 percent of its victims and it has a long incubation period.

It may take two weeks for symptoms to appear.

About two weeks after infection, the victim may develop high fever, malaise, headache and backache.

Two days after symptoms start, a rash develops, spreading all over the body.

Smallpox is easily spread, and there is no treatment.

U.S. health authorities stopped recommending routine vaccinations for smallpox in 1971.

Even those immunized before that time are unlikely to still be protected.

[ptbyjason]

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS VIEWING IMAGES OF MEDICAL CONDITIONS, PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER


I am not posting anything that shows the reactions of those that catch smallpox. Below are the stages of a vaccination. If you want to see people who have smallpox, do a search on the internet.



























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