New Fears About Smallpox Vaccine
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| Thu, 05-08-2003 - 9:31am |
"(CBS) Three months into the smallpox inoculation campaign, sources say the government is doing an about-face and will let states stop administering the high-risk vaccine, if they choose, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
That's a sharp contrast to the original rush to vaccinate a half-million health care workers as a frontline defense against a possible bio-terror attack. So far, only 35,000 of the targeted workers have been inoculated."
. . . "An aggressive government surveillance program set up to detect any dangerous trends recently uncovered one: 11 cases of unusual heart inflammation among military troops who got the smallpox vaccine; three civilian deaths are also under investigation.
But CBS News has learned of one high-profile death that hasn't yet been counted – that of NBC Correspondent David Bloom. He died of an apparent blood clot several weeks after getting both the smallpox and anthrax vaccines.
Asked if Bloom's death should be counted and reported since he had the smallpox vaccination and died within a period of weeks, Strom says, "Yes."
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Keeley
BTW, does anyone know when the last acutal epidemic was? i am not too up on it.
Lucky
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/pink/Smallpox.txt
"The last case of smallpox in the United States was reported in 1949....
By the end of 1975, smallpox persisted only in the Horn of Africa. Conditions were very
difficult in Ethiopia and Somalia, where there were few roads. Civil war, famine, and refugees made the task even more difficult. An intensive surveillance and containment and vaccination program was undertaken in the spring and summer of 1977. As a result, the world's last indigenous patient
with smallpox was a hospital cook in Merka, Somalia, on October 26, 1977. Searches for
additional cases continued in Africa for more than 2 years, during which time thousands of rash illnesses were investigated. None proved to be smallpox.
The last cases of smallpox on earth occurred in an outbreak of 2 cases (one of which was fatal) in Birmingham, England in 1978. This outbreak occurred because variola virus was carried by the ventilation system from a research laboratory to an office one floor above the laboratory. In 1980 the World Health Assembly certified the global eradication of smallpox and recommended that all countries cease vaccination. The World Health Organization also recommended that all laboratories either destroy their remaining stocks of variola virus or transfer them to one of two WHO reference laboratories - the Institute of Viral Preparations in Moscow, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. All laboratories were believed to have complied with this request."
Eve
Considering that they are still using historical stats to 'inform' people of the likely scenario should smallpox re-emerge, it certainly doesn't sound like death/injury from this disease would be one iota different today than it was way back when. The death rate of smallpox cases was supposedly 30% a century ago and this is the same percentage they use when referring to it's likely impact today. According to the vaccine 'sell' in general, should vaccines be discontinued, the same death/injury ratio that applied 50 years ago would be applicable for the so called VPD's today. So it seems that if you contract measles in 2003 the odds of you dying from it are the same as they were decades ago Hmmm...something just doesn't add up. Or maybe 'modern medicine' really can't save anymore lives, when it comes to childhood diseases, than could the doctors of 50 years (or a century) ago.
Jan
measles is a viral disease and there is not causative treatment for them. You can treat teh pneumonia and ear infections better, but the measles encephalitis and SSPE are still as deadly as they were back then. No reason to gloat over the "failure of modern medicine" as we *do* have an efficient vaccine, thanks to modern medicine, that can eradicate measles, mumps and rubella, if only it is used appropriately (two shots at 12 months and before school entry), as elegantly demonstrated by Finland.
Catherina
I think your arguement is a good case FOR vaxing. I am a little confused. If modern meds can't help with the next smallpox epidemic, why not vax? Seems the vax did more to prevent deaths than non vaxing would. Right? If 30% will die in an outbreak, isn't that less than death from vaccine? Aren't the current numbers one in 100,000 will die from the vax? I'm not sure.
Did I make any sense?
Lucky
Actually I was being a bit facetious in my comments about modern medicine. I do think they are better able to treat the so called VPD's today, as opposed to 50 or 100 years ago. My comments were more about the 'selling' of the vaccines by scaring parents into believing the death and injury rates of the disease would be the same as they were early/mid last century
Really, it's vaccine advocats who are implying that modern medicine has not progressed, when it comes to infectious disease, for many decades
<< Seems the vax did more to prevent deaths than non vaxing would. Right?>>
I live in Australia. Smallpox disappeared here with minimal vaccination. I think the last case here was in about 1922
<< If 30% will die in an outbreak, isn't that less than death from vaccine?>>
Well, that depends on whether the 30% figure is actually true I did post some figures a while back that were taken from an old government publication on smallpox, either here or on another board, that suggested the death rate from smallpox was much lower, I think in the vicinity of 5% (I'd try and find it for you, but then I've read how much you loathe being provided with links ;-) Seems you are not yet aware that at least one person on this board believes that personal opinion, unsubstantiated by scientific studies, counts for nought on a debate board!!) And it also depends on whether you buy the supposed 'one in a million death from vaccine' story that has perpetuated over the years. Personally I buy neither
Catherina said:
<< thanks to modern medicine, that can eradicate measles, mumps and rubella, if only it is used appropriately (two shots at 12 months and before school entry), as elegantly demonstrated by Finland.>>
Hmm...wonder what they call these diseases in Finland these days ;-)
Jan
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