Officials to Discuss Smallpox Vaccine

By DANIEL YEE , Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) -- Federal health officials who believe millions of Americans should be inoculated for smallpox are taking their case to a committee that has recommended giving the shots to only about 20,000 health workers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was to meet here Wednesday and Thursday for discussions about the vaccine, which can cause dangerous side effects. Smallpox has been wiped off the globe, but some experts fear that terrorists have samples of the virus and could use it as a devastating biological weapon.

Earlier this month, federal health officials suggested inoculating more than 10 million health workers and making the vaccine available to anyone who wants it. That plan is in sharp contrast to the recommendation made in June by committee members, who said that only select state and city emergency responders and hospital officials should receive the vaccine.

The federal officials, including the Bush administration's top smallpox expert, Dr. D.A. Henderson, are expected to brief advisory committee members Wednesday.

In the meantime, the Department of Health and Human Services is sending doctors a smallpox guide that explains how to treat people who have had reactions to the smallpox vaccine, and has announced plans to hire a psychiatrist who will specialize in communication and mass panic.

"The 'worried well' can bring the health care system to its knees,'' Jerry Hauer, assistant secretary for public health preparedness, said Tuesday, the anniversary of the anthrax attack on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office.

The White House has not made a final decision on smallpox. Under the latest plan suggested by the administration, 500,000 emergency room workers and special response team members would be vaccinated, followed by about 10 million health care workers and emergency responders, and then the interested members of the public.

Routine vaccinations in the United States ended in 1972 when health officials noticed the vaccine's complications were hurting more people than the virus. Experts say 15 people out of every million vaccinated for the first time will face life-threatening complications and one or two will die. Reactions are less common for those being revaccinated.

Henderson, who was instrumental in eradicating smallpox from the world two decades ago, has said the administration is "very worried'' about the possibility that Iraq may have smallpox samples.