Israeli officials have inoculated 15,000 emergency personnel, health workers and soldiers against smallpox, with almost no severe reactions to the vaccine, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 24).

Israel is now poised to immunize its entire population in four days if a case of smallpox appears anywhere in the world, the Times reported.  The Israeli effort stemmed from discussion on the threat of smallpox in the United States, but the Jewish state has now “jumped far ahead” of U.S. efforts, according to Boaz Lev, director general of the Israeli Health Ministry.

“After Sept. 11, there was a profound change in our psychology,” Lev said.  “Although there was no new information on which to base our vaccination decision, the potential terrorist threat increased dramatically, especially in the minds of doctors,” he added.

Potential medical fallout from the vaccine has not surfaced even though a handful of every million people vaccinated would probably suffer severe side effects, and one or two of those people would probably die, according to health statisticians.

In the current batch of Israeli inoculations, only 5 percent of those immunized reported side effects that included headaches, muscle pain, fatigue and general weakness.  One woman who was not immunized was infected by her husband’s vaccine, but she responded quickly to treatment and recovered.

The vaccine that Israel uses, which is called Lister, is probably responsible for the lack of complications to date, Lev said.  The Lister vaccine is less dangerous than the U.S. vaccine, he said.  Extensive screening before vaccinations has also helped eliminate potential complications, he added.

Initially, up to half the Israeli candidates for immunization balked because of the vaccine’s potential dangers, the Times reported.  A public education program and doctors who set an example by being vaccinated reportedly increased immunization rates greatly.

Some medical professionals in Israel have protested the vaccination program for being too limited.  Upset that his recommendation to vaccinate the entire country was rejected, Aryeh Eldad this summer resigned his position as the head of a Health Ministry advisory team on immunization (see GSN, Aug. 14).  Israel is now considering widening the scope of its immunizations, Lev said.

The results of the Israeli vaccination campaign have fueled the drive of U.S. officials who support widespread smallpox immunizations in the near future, according to the Times.  U.S. President George W. Bush is expected soon to reveal his smallpox immunization plan, which might recommend immunizing as many as 500,000 emergency health workers and 500,000 military personnel (see GSN, Nov. 25).

“The United States has much to learn from Israel’s experience,” wrote Leonard Marcus, director of the health care negotiation and conflict resolution program at the Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts, in a recent report on Israel’s response to the threat of biological terrorism (Judith Miller, New York Times, Dec. 10).

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