Problems with GI smallpox vaccinations

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/173468_smallpox15.html

 

 

Saturday, May 15, 2004

 

Problems with GI smallpox vaccinations

16 of every 100,000 service members have developed cardiac trouble

 

By M.A.J. MCKENNA

COX NEWS SERVICE

 

ATLANTA -- Members of the armed forces who have been vaccinated against smallpox

are developing an unexpectedly high rate of reactions that affect their hearts,

military doctors said.

 

The reactions suggest thousands of citizens would experience problems if the

smallpox vaccine were ever offered broadly to the U.S. population, the doctors

said.

 

About 16 out of every 100,000 armed forces members vaccinated have developed

cardiac problems, Dr. Dimitri Cassimatis of Walter Reed Army Medical Center said

at a briefing in New York.

 

About 615,000 have been inoculated since December 2002, when bioterrorism fears

prompted the resumption of smallpox vaccinations for military personnel and some

civilians after a 30-year hiatus.

 

The reactions are not life-threatening, Cassimatis said. They take the form of a

transient inflammation of the heart muscle and surrounding membrane that

subsides after four to six weeks of rest and treatment with mild

anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen.

 

But Cassimatis said the reactions, which occur within 30 days of vaccination,

are unnerving because they are similar to symptoms signaling a heart attack,

including chest pain and shortness of breath.

 

One out of five victims, he said, continue to experience chest pain and fatigue

after six weeks of treatment, but in-depth studies have shown no lasting heart

damage.

 

Smallpox vaccine has always carried some risk of aftereffects: Out of every 1

million vaccinations, according to data collected in the 1960s when the vaccine

was in wide use, one recipient will die and 14 to 52 will have a

life-threatening reaction or infection. Cardiac problems were not seen in the

1960s.

 

Of the approximately 40,000 civilian health workers who also have been

vaccinated, 34 have experienced heart problems, according to the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, though not all were of the type recorded in

military personnel.

 

When smallpox vaccination resumed, the military launched a registry that

recorded the experiences of those who received the vaccine.

 

The armed forces are now launching a joint study that may help predict who is

most vulnerable to cardiac side effects, Cassimatis said.

 

When the smallpox vaccine was in broad use, it was usually given to children.

Data regarding its impact on adults is limited and there is almost none on how

it affects adults who are being vaccinated for the first time.

 

Seventy percent of the U.S. service members who have been vaccinated since 2002

are receiving the vaccine for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

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