State Stocks Up on Vaccines To Prepare for Bioterrorism

Officials speculate that the potent smallpox virus could be the method used in an attack on the United States. As a result, both the nation and the state have filled their coffers with vaccines.

There has not been a smallpox case in the world for more than 20 years, and many believe it has been eradicated, said William Roper, dean of the UNC School of Public Health.

For the past two decades, smallpox samples have been contained in two labs, one in the United States and another in Russia, for disease control purposes. But Roper said there is evidence other nations -- including Iraq and North Korea, both potentially hostile -- now possess portions of Russia's smallpox.

"It has gotten into the hands of a nation, maybe a terrorist nation," Roper said. "(An attack) could happen today. It looks increasingly like we're going to war with Iraq. It might happen in the immediate aftermath of us attacking them."

North Carolina has taken steps to prepare for such an attack and has developed vaccination programs as part of the National Security Program, said James Kirkpatrick, a retired Army colonel and head of the N.C. Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response.

Kirkpatrick said the state's first vaccination program, called a pre-event program, is effective only if implemented before a bioterror attack occurs.

Smallpox vaccines for the program have been supplied by the federal government at very little cost, and the program will go into effect early next year.

The first stage of this program would vaccinate health care workers, medical transporters and others who could come into direct contact with the disease.

The second stage of the plan, to be implemented by 2004, would extend the vaccine to thousands of North Carolinians, including emergency response workers.

If a smallpox attack occurred, the post-event phase of the program would vaccinate anyone who has come into contact with the virus, Kirkpatrick said.

But he said the state's best response would be the early detection and isolation of the disease.

There are potentially fatal risks involved with smallpox vaccinations, Kirkpatrick added. "It's not nearly as safe as other vaccines," he said.

Potential recipients of the vaccine are screened for conditions that could make them susceptible to the negative side effects of the immunization, he said.

Even those in close contact with recently vaccinated people should not have any of these conditions -- especially pregnant women, children, and those with compromised immune systems.

But if a smallpox attack occurred, people would be vaccinated whether or not they have those conditions, because the disease is much worse than the side effects of the vaccination.

Kirkpatrick said he is confident that North Carolina is prepared for a bioterror attack. "We have a plan," he said. "If we had to use it today, we know what we would do. The best deterrence for the attack is to be ready to deal with it."

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