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U.S. Health Officials Will Not Abandon Smallpox Immunizations By David McGlinchey GENEVA — U.S health officials do not intend to abandon their efforts to inoculate emergency health workers with the smallpox vaccine, even though the 10-month-old program has fallen far short of anticipated goals, a senior health official said last week (see GSN, Oct. 23). U.S. officials have turned their focus away from a broad public vaccination effort and are now trying to convince local hospital officials that smallpox immunizations are in their own best interest, according to D.A. Henderson, who led the international smallpox eradication effort and is now a top adviser to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Henderson acknowledged that the program had stalled, but he said that it had not died. “If I were director of a hospital, I would want a good number of my people immunized. I think there are going to be additional vaccinations,” he said in an interview. In 2002, health officials decided to launch a national smallpox immunization campaign and asked state health departments to estimate how many emergency workers would need the vaccine. The combined state estimates totaled about 420,000 emergency workers. Considering the need to exclude some at-risk workers, U.S. officials expected to vaccinate about 300,000 personnel in the first phase of the program, Henderson said. In December 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the beginning of the campaign and received the vaccine himself. Administration officials — including Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding — said that they were hoping to complete the first phase of vaccinations in about a month, and then move forward to vaccinate 10 million fire fighters, security personnel, and other first responders during the summer. Despite vaccinating only 38,000 health care workers since then, homeland security officials insist that the program has not fallen short of expectations. “We feel that we have enough inoculated individuals should an outbreak occur,” said Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. Henderson acknowledged that many see the immunization effort as a failure, but he said that Washington has greatly strengthened the nation’s bioterrorism defenses. He cited the newly purchased U.S. vaccine stockpile, increased physician awareness and improved communication within the public health community. “We’re light years away from where we were a year ago. We’re dealing with a different situation,” Henderson said. If terrorists attacked the United States with the smallpox virus, officials could quickly detect and control the outbreak, according to Henderson. “I have a feeling we could bring it to a halt, with no cases after 4-6 weeks. It would not disrupt civil society,” he said.
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