If Smallpox were to rear its ugly head (I know it is not supposed to exist any longer; except in bioweapons research) would all of our uninnoculated population die? What are the effects of Smallpox on the uninnoculated?
When did we stop innoculating our children?
Smallpox is a horribly infectious and deadly disease. It’s been eradicated in the “wild,” but there has been talk of producing vaccine again as some believe there are cultures in various places around the world that could be unleashed again, as bioweaponry. Even those of us who’ve been imunized probably have lost our immunity to this disease. Maybe it would help us a little and just wipe out NSync, Back Street Boys and Britney Spears.
Most of the population these days is susceptible to smallpox - universal vaccination was stopped back in the 70s. There are a few hundred thousand units of vaccine still in storage in the US, but if there were a widespread outbreak, we’d be in trouble. A lot of people would die before vaccine production could really get up to speed.
I was involved in a debate on vaccination a while back and did a ton of research.
With a fatality rate of 10-30% the casualties would be enormous if the smallpox virus was used as a bioweapon. The World Health Organization gives some estimates of casualties had smallpox not been eradicated.
This stands as one of the best cases for supporting vaccinations.
The related organism Cow Pox can be used as an alternative to the smallpox organism in a vaccine.
Does Cow Pox exist in the cattle population in the United States? How common is it?
I thought they still gave the babies smallpox vaccines. I was vaccinated against it, and I was born in the 1980’s…
Smallpox: An Attack Scenario. Describes the potential reaction from local to state to federal to a bioterroristic attack on a city in the northeastern US. Some of it sounded very familiar considering reactions to West Nile, an emerging (non-bioterroristic) disease here on the east coast US. Media exploitation and paranoia, interagency confusion, initial misdiagnosis: check, check, and check. Growing pains for a learning to deal with emerging diseases.
Aftermath of a Hypothetical Smallpox Disaster. Followup to the first article. In there, it is mentioned that there is currently between 6 and 7 million vaccines [in the US, I’m assuming] and it takes 36 months to prepare large amounts of vaccine. Six million vaccines does not sound like much to me for a smallpox outbreak in an immunologically naive and very mobile population.
Vaccinia (Smallpox) Vaccine Recommendations of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP). JillGat hit it on the nose - it’s unlikely most of us would have any immunologic response to exposure: “According to available data on the persistence of neutralizing antibody following vaccination, persons working with vaccinia, recombinant vaccinia viruses, or other nonvariola orthopoxviruses should be revaccinated every 10 years.” So much for my 60’s childhood vaccination.