[FNLBeInformed] Virus In Smallpox Inoculation Spreads

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Misty L. Trepke

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Virus In Smallpox Inoculation Spreads

Associated Press

February 13, 2004

 

An armed services member who was vaccinated against smallpox passed

the vaccine virus on to his wife, who then passed it to their baby

during breast feeding, the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention said Thursday, marking the first time on record that the

vaccine has caused problems in two generations of contacts.

All three have recovered, the agency said. The agency disclosed the

May 2003 case in an update on the Department of Defense campaign to

protect members of the armed services against smallpox infection in

case the disease is used as a weapon.

 

Smallpox was eradicated from the globe in 1979. The last U.S. case

occurred in 1949; vaccination against the disease ended in the

United States in 1972, in part because of the number of reactions

and illnesses caused by the vaccination. The vaccine produces

immunity by infecting the recipient with a live virus,

vaccinia, which is from the same family as smallpox but causes much

less serious disease. In rare cases --- approximately two to six per

100,000 vaccinations --- the virus can spread from the vaccinated

person to his or her intimate contacts.

 

So far, the agency said, 578,286 military personnel have been

vaccinated against the disease since December 2002; 28 adults and

two children developed uncomplicated illnesses after contact with a

vaccinated person. Twenty of the adults were spouses or had intimate

contact with the military member; the rest were friends.

In the baby's case, which occurred in Alaska, the serviceman's wife

developed small breast sores two weeks after his vaccination. She

was initially diagnosed with mastitis. After the baby developed

small blisterlike lesions on the lip and cheek, the two were re-

examined at a military referral hospital and diagnosed with

vaccinia. The lesions healed and neither mother nor baby

required further treatment.

 

The wife had been careful to avoid contact with the vaccination site

on her husband's arm, but may have been infected by contact with

towels or bed linen, the CDC said. In a separate case in July, the

agency added, a service member who recently had been vaccinated was

wrestling at a military gym with another service member when the

bandage covering his vaccination lesion came off. The wrestling

partner, plus a third service member with whom the second one

wrestled, developed face, neck and arm lesions six days later. All

three recovered.