Smallpox
is a serious, contagious, and sometimes fatal infectious
disease. There is no specific treatment for smallpox
disease, and the only prevention is vaccination.
Smallpox outbreaks have occurred from time to time for
thousands of years, but the disease is now eradicated
after a successful worldwide vaccination program. The
last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1949.
The last naturally occurring case in the world was in
Somalia in 1977. The federal government suspects that
there are supplies of the smallpox virus that could be
used to deliberately threaten the civilian and military
population of the country.
Virtually
everyone in the United States was routinely vaccinated
against smallpox before 1971. The vaccinations were
suspended at that time, and those vaccinated before 1971
have virtually no protection against smallpox at this
time. Currently, the United States government has
enough smallpox vaccine to vaccinate everyone who might
need it in the event of an emergency. The smallpox
vaccine is not available to the general public, and is
not recommended for the general public at this time.
Smallpox vaccine is only recommended for the general
public in the case of a declared emergency, after which
these mass vaccination clinics will become
operational.
Smallpox
vaccine consists of a live virus known as vaccinia. It
is a different virus from that which produces smallpox
disease, thus, you cannot get smallpox disease from
the smallpox vaccine. It is felt that those that
received the smallpox vaccine in childhood or at other
times in their life will not experience as significant a
reaction to revaccination as those that have never been
vaccinated. Most people who receive the smallpox
vaccine will not have any adverse reactions. Smallpox
vaccine does, however, have some health risks associated
with it, and, therefore, the vaccine is not recommended
for everyone. People who should not be vaccinated include
pregnant women, people with weakened immune systems (due
to medical conditions like AIDS/HIV or those undergoing
treatments like chemotherapy), people with certain skin
conditions, children under one year old and people living
with someone that has any of the conditions listed above.
In the event of a mass smallpox vaccination, those with
these medical conditions will be carefully evaluated and
counseled, in order that each individual has enough
information to make an informed decision about whether to
be vaccinated and additional precautions they should
take. You should review the CDC's information on
smallpox and smallpox vaccine, at http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/index.asp,
and contact your physician to discuss specific medical
conditions, prior to any clinic.
Click
here to visit the Federal CDC's website for detailed
information on Smallpox and Smallpox
vaccine.
