|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Smallpox: Homeland Bill Includes Smallpox Vaccine Liability Protection Removing a large roadblock to smallpox immunizations, U.S. legislators have included language in the homeland security bill to limit lawsuits against medical workers administering smallpox vaccine (see GSN, Oct. 24). Senators are expected to vote by next week on the bill, which the House of Representatives passed yesterday. If the bill passes intact, the U.S. government would pay damages to those who are injured or to the families of those who are killed by the vaccine, but victims would not receive punitive damages, the Associated Press reported. “Because of risks associated with the smallpox vaccine, many health professionals may be unwilling to give the vaccine without some measure of liability protection,” Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said. “The threat of lawsuits mustn’t be a barrier to protecting the American people,” he added (Laura Meckler, Associated Press, Nov. 13). Meanwhile, scientists in New York are leading a study on residual immunity from old smallpox vaccinations, and how it might affect any new inoculation. U.S. health officials have said that the existing batch of smallpox vaccine — some doses are more than 40 years old — can be diluted and remain effective. For people who were vaccinated long ago, existing immunity could be too weak to be effective against smallpox, but such immunity might still resist a diluted dose of vaccine, scientists have said. If this theory is correct, people with existing immunity would now need full-strength doses of the vaccine. “It’s likely the body may tamp down the diluted vaccine; we don’t know,” said John Treanor, a medical professor at the University of Rochester who is leading the study. “The subjects in this study are people who were vaccinated as children, and for some people that may have been 30, 40, 50 years ago,” he added. Researches plan to use 1,000 volunteers — ranging in age from their early 30s to 75 years old — and to administer either a full dose of the vaccine or a diluted dose (Delthia Ricks, Baltimore Sun, Nov. 14).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
