Panel calls for halt to expanded smallpox vaccinations
Emergency Management Alert, June 25, 2003
A federal health panel June 19 recommended the Bush administration not expand its smallpox vaccination program to 10 million emergency workers because of potential cardiac side effects, the Associated Press reports.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said the government should continue the first phase of the smallpox vaccinations, which focuses on civilian health workers. But it recommended against expanding the program to police officers, firefighters, and other responders because of the risk of heart inflammation, which only became apparent in recent months.
Health officials previously knew that the vaccine, made from a live virus, carries a risk of life-threatening complications that kill one or two people out of every million vaccinated. Since health workers began receiving vaccinations in January, six have had heart attacks and two of those victims died.
The committee sent a resolution to its parent body, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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