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Smallpox Vaccine Coming to Tucson

By Bud Foster

Monday was the deadline for state's smallpox plans to be handed over to the Centers for Disease Control. President Bush wants America to be prepared in case the smallpox virus is used in a terrorist attack..

This is step two in the effort to immunize everyone in America against smallpox. The state was scheduled to turn over it's plan by the 5:00 PM deadline. All Arizona counties sent their plans to the state, which will use them as a road map to come up with a plan of its own.

The plan will outline the First Responder Team's Strategy. It will include how to spot the disease, what to do once it's diagnosed and how to deal with the disease once it has spread to the population at large.

The CDC will review it and if it likes what it sees, will send the smallpox vaccine to Arizona for distribution. If it acts quickly, Pima County health officials believe the vaccine could be in Arizona in a matter of days.

That's when some very serious decisions will be made. For some people the vaccination can be as serious as the disease itself. In some cases, taking the vaccine can kill. That has many people in the medical profession, who will be the first to take it, wondering whether it's worth the risk.

Bryn Bailer, of the County Health Department warns, "About 35% of the people vaccinated, studies have shown, will have some sort of reaction. It could be mild, where they may have to take a day off of work, all the way to encephalitis and in some cases, even to death."

That has some medical people making a choice of whether to take the risk of the shot or wait until there is a real threat of smallpox before making the decision. According to the county plan, all the front line people, the emergency responders, will be volunteers. They could be in for a rough ride, depending on how they react to the shot. For that reason, some want to wait and for good reason. "If a person is exposed they have three to four days to get the vaccination to prevent the disease," says Bailer.

Police and Fire will be on the list following medical people and there could be 11 million of them. Again, it will be voluntary. Last on the list for inoculations, if they ever come, will be the general public. One reason for that is the lack of tolerance of side effects by the general population. Where once they might have tolerated the side effects, flu-like symptoms, a few days in bed, for safety, doctors say tolerance for side effects has gone way down.

The big question for hospitals is, who gets immunized? Will they need general surgeons? Anesthesiologists? How many nurses? Security personnel? Cooks and laundry personnel? It's estimated hospitals may need up to 60 people per shift, 150 people per hospital. Can they find that many people who will volunteer to take a risky vaccination without a real terrorist threat? It's a question a lot of people are asking, but no one seems to be answering.