Smallpox vax off to a bad start-Smallpox vaccine side effects catch doctors by surprise

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Well, well - keep watching.

Such criminals making SO many people fear this for NOTHING>

Sheri

>From: " Steve Z " <jjmaterials@...>

Smallpox vaccine side effects catch doctors by surprise

By Ceci Connolly / The Washington Post

http://www.detnews.com/2002/health/0212/05/health-28078.htm

As physical specimens, the Baylor University students were fit and

healthy, the " creme de la creme, " in the words of researcher Kathy .

Yet when she inoculated them with smallpox vaccine, arms swelled,

temperatures spiked and panic spread.

It was the same at clinics in Iowa, Tennessee and California. Of 200

young adults who received the vaccine as part of a recent government study,

one-third missed at least one day of work or school, 75 people had high

fevers and several were put on antibiotics because physicians worried that

their blisters signaled a serious bacterial infection.

Even for experts such as , the Vanderbilt University physician

overseeing the study, the side effects were startling. " I can read all day

about it, but seeing it is quite impressive, " she said. " The reactions we

saw were really quite remarkable. "

President Bush is poised to announce plans, perhaps as early as this

week, to resume vaccinating Americans against smallpox as part of a massive

push to protect the nation from a biological assault. As he weighs the

decision, researchers are becoming reacquainted with the unpleasant --

often severe -- complications of the vaccine itself.

The experiences in a half dozen clinical trials offer an early look at

what military personnel, hospital workers and other emergency workers will

likely encounter if Bush adopts the recommendations of his top health

advisers to vaccinate up to 11 million people in the coming months. What is

disconcerting, say the people participating in the clinical trials, is that

when it comes to smallpox vaccination, what had once been considered

ordinary is rather extraordinary by today's standards.

" I just wanted to go to bed for a day or two there, " said Alison

Francis, a New York University graduate student who received the vaccine.

Francis, 24, said she felt tired and achy after getting her shot. Her arm

was heavy, warm to the touch and terribly itchy. " I thought, ãCan you just

chop off my arm? " '

Participating in the study was part patriotism and part selfishness, she

said. " Now I'm protected. "

Once among the deadliest scourges on earth, smallpox was declared

eradicated worldwide in 1981. But growing hostilities with Iraq, Osama bin

Laden and other terrorists have renewed fears that the virus could be used

as a potent, stealthy weapon.

Vaccination is surefire protection against the disease, but it is risky.

For every 1 million vaccinated, between 15 and 52 people will suffer

life-threatening consequences such as brain inflammation and one or two

will die, according to historical data. Pregnant women, babies, people with

excema or weakened immune systems should not receive the vaccine.

Federal health officials have proposed resuming vaccination in stages,

beginning with up to 500,000 hospital workers most likely to see an initial

case. Later, as many as 10 million police, fire and medical personnel would

be offered vaccine. The Pentagon hopes to vaccinate 500,000 soldiers.

Over the past year, federal researchers have been testing the

40-year-old vaccine for its safety and potency. None of the 1,500

volunteers have died or been seriously injured by the vaccine. But even the

most mundane cases can be disturbing to doctors and patients unaccustomed

to the live virus used in the vaccine and its side effects.

Unlike most modern vaccines, the smallpox vaccine is administered by 15

quick pricks that literally " establish an infection in your skin, " said

Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention in Atlanta. " There is the immediate discomfort of getting poked

in the arm and a range of annoying reactions. "

Within three to four days, a red itchy bump develops, followed by a

larger blister filled with pus. In the second week, the blister dries and

turns into a scab that usually falls off in the third week. During the

three weeks, many people experience flu-like symptoms -- aches, fever,

lethargy -- and terrible itchiness.

" You can't scratch it, it's all bandaged up; all I could do was smack

it, " said Meg Gifford, a University of land junior who participated in

one study. For one weekend, she was " pretty miserable, " suffering from a

slight fever, an arm that was hot to the touch and swollen lymph nodes in

her armpit.

At the University of Rochester Medical Center, researcher Treanor

saw a wide range of reactions, from a small rash to swelling the size of a

grapefruit. About 5 percent of the 170 participants had rashes that spread

to other parts of the body. It took time and experience, he said, for the

team to get comfortable with the natural course of the vaccine.

" The reactions we are seeing are totally out of line with today's

vaccine experience and absolutely in line with historical experience, " said

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious

Diseases. " In the 30 years since we had routine vaccination, the public's

tolerance level has gone way down. "

land researchers have begun a second trial revaccinating older

adults to see how much immunity stays in the system. Early indications are

that people who have been previously inoculated do not suffer as many

severe side effects. " I had a small red mark and that was about it, " said

Dudley, 33.

Very few of today's practicing physicians have administered the vaccine

or treated its side effects. Even at the CDC, where health experts work

daily with an array of germs, smallpox vaccinations were briefly halted

when 10 people had serious enough reactions to begin antibiotics, said

Walter Orenstein, director of CDC's National Immunization Program.

" The clinic physician couldn't decide if this was a normal primary

exuberant take or a bacterial infection, " he said, explaining that, in

fact, the swollen, itchy, red arms were routine.

As a first year medical student 33 years ago, Orenstein was so alarmed

by the fever, swollen glands and red streak up his arm after he was

vaccinated that he went to the emergency room for antibiotics. " I respect

this vaccine, " he said.

If Bush moves forward with vaccination, as expected, warns

doctors to expect the array of unsightly, unfamiliar complications that

will come.

" You are going to have to be prepared to see these individuals and to

see really bad takes, " she told state health officers. " You'll wonder if

they are bacterial infections; in some cases the rash will move up the arm

and onto the chest. The vaccinee requires a lot of TLC. "

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

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