Early results from a U.S. National Institutes of Health study indicate the United States could dilute the 15 million smallpox vaccine doses it has to provide vaccines to at least 75 million people in the event of a biological attack (see GSN, Dec. 6, 2001).

The study, which began in October, compares results from 600 volunteers who tried full-strength, one-fifth strength and one-tenth strength vaccines.  So far, all the volunteers have developed sores where the vaccine was injected — a sign that the vaccine is working to trigger the immune system, said D.A. Henderson, director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness in the Health and Human Services Department.

The study is “going very well,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.  The government will probably publish the study’s results later this month or in early March, Fauci said.

Scientists also intended to use the study to test the ability of the drug cidofovir to treat vaccine side effects, but there probably have been too few participants to adequately test such treatments, Henderson said (see GSN, Jan. 29).

“My understanding is we haven’t had complications in the dilution study,” he said.

Meanwhile, the United States has ordered 200 million new smallpox vaccine doses (see GSN, Nov. 29, 2001), scheduled to arrive by the end of the year (Marilyn Chase, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 6).

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