Statement to the Press by the Director-general of the WHO, Dr Gro Harlem
Brundtland: World Health Organization Announces Updated Guidance on
Smallpox Vaccination
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GENEVA: Following the review of guidance on smallpox vaccination I
announced last week, WHO has consulted with our advisory committee
and has updated the official guidance. The conclusion of the review
states that:
"Existing vaccines have proven efficacy but also have a high incidence
of adverse side-effects. The risk of adverse events is sufficiently high
that mass vaccination is not warranted if there is no or little real risk of
exposure. Individual countries that have reason to believe that their
people face an increased risk of smallpox because of deliberate use of
the virus are considering options for increasing their access to vaccines.
The vaccines would be given to people who are at risk of exposure to
smallpox, including health and civil workers, and would be used in a
search and containment exercise should an outbreak occur.
In summary, the guidance is that vaccination of entire populations is
not recommended. The reason for not recommending such mass
vaccination is that there is a risk of severe reactions to the vaccine,
*including death*, and the fact that vaccination can prevent smallpox
even after exposure to the virus.
Up to now the guidance has also stated that only those with suspected
exposure to smallpox or a related virus should be vaccinated. That has
not changed. What has changed is the increasing attention being given
to the extent and quality of existing vaccine stocks, and to the possible
need both to stimulate vaccine production and increase stocks of
vaccine for use in the event of an outbreak. WHO confirms that the
best method of stopping a smallpox outbreak, should it occur, remains
the same - search and containment. That means identifying persons
with smallpox, identifying those people who have been in contact with
them, and vaccinating them.
*People who have been vaccinated in the past are unlikely to develop
the most serious effects of smallpox.*
This advice and background information on smallpox is now being
made available to governments through the WHO web-site
. Along with this advice we are providing Frequently
asked Questions and Answers about smallpox and a smallpox Fact
Sheet with an electronic slide set of training materials on smallpox.
Other information that will be provided to Health Ministers on
request includes a list of vaccine manufacturers that have the potential
to produce smallpox vaccine and the names of laboratories that can
diagnose smallpox. WHO has also re-established a team of technical
experts in smallpox who are available to assist countries in the
investigation and response to outbreaks.
Finally, I want to emphasize that should an outbreak of smallpox be
detected in any country, this should be considered an international
emergency. WHO will help countries to pool available resources so as
to contain the disease as rapidly and effectively as possible."
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Daniel Epstein
Information Officer
Pan American Health Organization/
World Health Organization
525 23rd St., NW
Washington D.C. 20037
From: "Dr. Alva Irish"
Subject: Keynotes of Variolinum from Clarke, Boericke, and Allen
Date: Monday, October 22, 2001 5:13 PM
Variolinum.
From Clarke's Materia Medica
Variolinum. Nosode of Small-pox. Trituration of matter from small-pox
vesicle.
Clinical.-Asthma. Backache. Chill. Fever. Headache; occipital. Herpes
zoster. Neuralgia. Small-pox. Testicle, swelling of.
Characteristics.-The cardinal symptoms of small-pox are the keynote symptoms
for the use of Variolinum. The backache of small-pox is about the worst
backache known, and Var. has cured in my practice a number of bad backaches
that nothing else seemed to touch. Var. was Burnett's chief remedy in
shingles; it generally, as he expressed it, wiped out the disease, eruption
and pain as well. It will also cure neuralgia left by herpes. Var. has
aborted many cases of small-pox, and has proved an efficient preventive
against small-pox contagion and vaccinal infection. G. M. H. (H. W., xxxii.
546) records this experience: Var. 6 (three pilules) was given to the mother
and children of a family, one of whose members was taken with small-pox and
removed to an isolation hospital, with his mother to nurse him. The patient
(who did not receive Var.) was dangerously ill for a month. Neither the
mother who nursed him nor any of the other children took small-pox. Vaccine
was sent by the Government and all the family were vaccinated, but it did
not take with any of those who had taken Var., although the vaccination was
repeated. Moreover, G. M. H. himself, who had taken a dose of Var.,
submitted to vaccination, but "although four thorough inoculations were
given, they healed up immediately, and did not even itch or smart.".-These
are cardinal indications for Var.: Severe cold; chill; chilly creepings as
if cold water were trickling down the back; violent fever with extremely hot
skin, with or without high pulse. Violent headache. Nausea. Pain in
epigastrium. Pain in limbs as if in bones. Severe backache. There may be
rash or there may not. Here is a case of Swan's, who is a pioneer with
nosodes (H. W., xviii. 205): Miss H., 21, healthy, hearty; complained of the
following symptoms: Confusion of head as if going crazy, with a sensation as
if it was all in the back of the head and running down spine, followed by
intense, heavy, hot headache in back of head and neck and region of medulla;
sensation as if head weighed a hundredweight, with a tendency of it to fall
backwards; deathly nausea in throat-pit during headache. During headache
hands and feet icy cold, particularly the hands; tongue coated yellow in
morning, with bad, disgusting taste in mouth; no appetite; knees feel weak
as if they would give way, especially on going down stairs; pains in thighs
and hips; severe aching, burning pain in small of back; skin hot and dry;
pulse not feverish. Var. cm (Swan), in water, cured in six hours, the
confusion of the head ceased after the pain did. A school of two hundred
children was "internally variolated" with Var. cmm (Swan) on the evening of
February 18th and the morning of February 19th. Of two schoolmistresses one
was not at all affected; the other was two days in bed ill. On 21st many of
the children were ill; by the 23rd all except forty were, the symptoms being
the usual preliminary symptoms of small-pox, and later Swan found pustules
on many. After the varioloid had passed off, but before the patients had
recovered their vitality, twenty-three children were vaccinated without
Swan's knowledge. All but one took and had terrible ulcers on the arms, and
had to be remedied by Vacc. (cmm, Swan). Sensations of Var. are: As if a
band tightly encircled head. Crazy feeling through brain. As if throat were
closed. As of a lump in right side of throat. Like streams of ice-water
running down back. Pain as if back were broken. The symptoms are < By
motion.
VARIOLINUM from Boericke's Materia Medica
Lymph from Small-pox Pustule
Used for "internal vaccination." Seems to be efficacious in protecting
against, modifying and aiding in the cure of smallpox.
Head.--Morbid fear of small-pox. Deafness. Pain in occiput. Inflamed
eyelids.
Respiratory.--Oppressed breathing. Throat feels closed. Cough with thick
viscid, bloody mucus. Feeling of a lump in right side of throat.
Relationship.--Excruciating backache. Aching in legs. Tired all over with
restlessness. Wrists pain. Pains shift from back to abdomen.
Fever.--Hot fever, with intense radiating heat. Profuse, bad-smelling sweat.
Skin.--Hot, dry. Eruption of pustules. Shingles.
Variolinum. From Keynotes by H.C. Allen
Pus from smallpox pustule. (A Nosode.)
Bears the same relation to smallpox that Antitoxin does to diphtheria. An
extended clinical record by competent and reliable observers attest its
curative value in variola - simple, confluent and malignant - as well as in
varioloid and varicella. It has done splendid work in all potencies, from
the 6th cent. to the c. m. As a preventive of, or protection against,
smallpox, it is far superior to crude vaccination and absolutely safe from
the sequenae, especially septic and tubercular infection.
Dr. Alva Irish is a Board Certified Naturopath (by the ANMA) and a
Homeopath, CEO and Research Scientist for the Center For Mankind Foundation
(CFOM)
You are cordially invited to Visit her Websites!
http://www.askahomeopath.net - On line Holistic Health Service
http://www.casatek.com/cfom - Center For Mankind Foundation
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http://www.blkfoot.com/TheCaprineCabin/as1.htm - Animal Hair Mineral
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http://hop.clickbank.net/?homeopath/gentltouch - A book on Therapeutic
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http://www.askahomeopath.net/vaccines.htm - Bioterrorism Homeopathic
Vaccines info and Remedies
-- Dr. Alva Irish (dr_irish@bellsouth.net), October 27, 2001