Smallpox Vaccination Risks -- Lessons From The Past

Main Category: Bio-terrorism / Terrorism
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 24 Aug 2006 - 21:00 PST

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Smallpox vaccination has some adverse effects, including post-vaccination encephalitis which can cause permanent brain damage and has been estimated to kill one vaccinee in every million. Consequently, as smallpox became rarer, the dangers of vaccination began to outweigh its benefits, and routine vaccination was stopped.

Now, however, there are fears that smallpox may be used for bioterrorism. If this did happen, exposed individuals and their contacts, possibly even whole populations, would have to be vaccinated as quickly as possible. Many countries have stockpiles of smallpox vaccines for this eventuality, but these contain different vaccinia virus strains. Miriam Kretzschmar and colleagues have analysed historical data and argue that the different stockpiled strains differ quite substantially in their potential to cause encephalitis. This information should help public-health officials plan their vaccination strategies in response to a bioterrorism attack with smallpox.

Citation: Kretzschmar M, Wallinga J, Teunis P, Xing S, Mikolajczyk R (2006) Frequency of adverse events after vaccination with different vaccinia strains. PLoS Med 3(8): e272.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030272

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CONTACT:
Miriam Kretzschmar
University of Bielefeld
School of Public Health
PO Box 100131
Bielefeld, 33501 Germany
mirjam.kretzschmar@uni-bielefeld.de

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