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U.S. Describes Cases of Smallpox Vaccine Virus Transfers
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday disclosed details of two instances in which armed services members recently vaccinated against smallpox accidentally infected others with the vaccine’s virus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today (see GSN, Dec. 3, 2003). The cases involved U.S. military personnel who received the smallpox vaccine last year. Since December 2002, more than 575,000 personnel have been inoculated, according to the CDC, and 30 unvaccinated people have developed illnesses after contact with vaccinated personnel. All have recovered, according to the Journal-Constitution. In the cases disclosed yesterday, one involved an armed services member who passed the virus to his wife who then passed it to their breast-feeding baby. Everyone recovered without treatment. The wife had been careful to avoid contact with her husband’s vaccination site, but the virus may have been transferred on towels or bedsheets, the CDC said. It was the first known instance of the virus passing through two generations. In the other case, a recently vaccinated service member passed the virus to a wrestling partner at a military gym, and third service member was infected after wrestling with the second. The bandage protecting the vaccination site on the vaccinee had come off during the wrestling bout. Again, all three recovered (M.A.J. McKenna, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 13).
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