http://www.boston.com/dailynews/286/nation/Federal_study_will_try_smaller:.shtml

Federal study will try smaller dose of smallpox vaccine to stretch limited stockpile

By Stephen Manning, Associated Press, 10/13/2001 05:06

BETHESDA, Md. Researchers are beginning a large new study to see if they can dilute the nation's small stockpile of smallpox vaccine to make it stretch farther in case of a bioterrorist attack.

Fresh batches of vaccine are on order, but experts hope that adding more liquid to the existing supply will be a temporary solution at least until those begin to arrive next summer.

The need for protection against the disease, which has been eradicated in its natural form, has become more pressing since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. There is no treatment for smallpox, and routine vaccinations ceased in the United States in 1972 because it was no longer considered a threat. Most people vaccinated before then have lost their resistance to the virus.

Some experts fear that smallpox manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 1980s for biowarfare may have been obtained by rogue nations and could be used in bioterrorist attacks.

The government has 15.4 million doses of smallpox vaccine stockpiled at secret warehouses around the country. Researchers at four institutions will test whether the vaccine can be diluted to one-fifth and one-tenth of their standard dosage and still prevent infection.

''It's a very quick way to markedly expand the amount of vaccine that we already have, which on face value in the undiluted form would not be a lot. It's prudent to be prepared,'' said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, which is funding the experiment.

If the approach works, Fauci said the diluted vaccine could be ready by the end of this year.

However, diluting the vaccine is not meant to be an alternative to the new doses in production, said Dr. Sharon Frey, the lead researcher on the smallpox study at St. Louis University. ''This is a stopgap measure to make more doses available until that new vaccine is developed.''

Over a 2½-month period beginning next month, researchers at St. Louis, the University of Maryland, the University of Rochester and Baylor College of Medicine will study 684 adults under the age of 32 who have never been vaccinated for smallpox. They will see if the diluted vaccines trigger production of protective antibodies and create a telltale scab.

In a pilot study last year on 20 people, researchers used vaccines diluted by 10 times and by 100 times. The one-tenth doses produced a significant number of positive results, while the doses that were 100 times weaker had little effect.

Anything that would increase the country's limited stockpile is an improvement, said Dr. Neal Halsey, who studies vaccines at the Johns Hopkins University.

''I am sure there is nowhere near enough smallpox vaccine to provide it to everyone in the country and even those who would be exposed in a large incident,'' he said.

Smallpox is a viral disease that causes high fevers, rashes and sores that cover the whole body. The disease is fatal in about a third of all cases.

While inhaled anthrax is much more lethal, killing roughly 90 percent of all patients, it isn't contagious. Smallpox released in a bioterror attack, however, could spread rapidly throughout a population and infect thousands because it is passed through the air.

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

Answers

New here... nice forum, lots of good current events news.

My understanding is that all current stock of smallpox vaccine are contaminated, and dangerous to use. Seems that would preclude there use even in smaller doses, no?

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

Don't think we've heard that, ZP. Do you have a news report?

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

They orginally used cowpox to vaccinate against smallpox. Is cowpox still in large cattle populations? Would it be possible, for instance, to vaccinate a population local to feedlots or dairies with cowpox? Some immunity may increase the survival rate.

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

Sorry I can't hotlink. [I can, teehee, OG]

This link stilldoesn't work, even with html instead of htlm. Sorry! However, this one might do: Smallpox as a biological weapon

Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, The John Hopkins University

( Glad I'm preping agine, everytime I pee my pants I feel safer having extra TP on hand.)

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

I thought it was the anthrax vaccine that was bad.

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

Old Git:

This was according to an (ex?) military man on a Nightline interview a week or so back, not sure of date. He said that the stocks of vaccine currently held by the CDC and DOD (in cold storage, I believe) were over 20 years old, that much of the stocks had lost effectiveness, and in some cases were contaminated and unfit for use.

Also understand that there is another substance, vaccinia immuno globulin (VIG), that is needed in case there is a reaction to the vaccine, and that the CDC has sole stocks of this in very limited supply... saw this in article on the JAMA website re: smallpox as bioweapon.

Additionally, saw a post somewhere in recent days stating that the bifurcated (split) needles used to administer the vaccine were no longer in production, nort stockpiled. I'd suppose that's the easist part of the chain to fix.

I think I'll just stay home if there's an outbreak :(

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

I haven't been able to figure this out. I've heard that it's going to be a couple of years before there's enough smallpox vaccine. Does it take that long to actually culture the vaccine or is that estimate based on the current production line? If the former, well, I guess we're out of luck, but if the latter--hasn't anyone started to increase the staff and facilities?

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

COWpox, people. We need to talk to dairies and feedlots. Anyone out there know if cowpox is still around?

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001

Thank you "link fixer". I think it doesn't work because the end of it should be: html, not htlm.

Sorry about that. This is a good site with quality information.

This is the home page: http://www.hopkins-biodefense.org/index.html

-- Anonymous, October 14, 2001