Breat-fed baby exposed to smallpox vaccine virus

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http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/13/smallpox.reut/index.html

 

Breast-fed baby exposed to smallpox vaccine virus

Friday, February 13, 2004 Posted: 9:08 AM EST (1408 GMT)

 

ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) -- A U.S. soldier's wife who was

accidentally exposed to the live virus in the smallpox vaccine likely

passed it on to her baby through breast-feeding, according to

military authorities.

 

The incident, which occurred in May 2003 as the U.S. military was

inoculating hundreds of thousands of soldiers against smallpox, is

the first documented case of third-hand transmission of vaccinia

virus through breast-feeding.

 

Vaccinia is not smallpox, but a pox-like virus related to the rare

and deadly virus. Cases of accidental transmission are rare, usually

occurring through direct contact with a vaccinated person's unhealed

vaccination site.

 

In a report released on Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, a team of Army doctors reported that the

unidentified mother developed lesions near her nipples about a week

after her husband was vaccinated.

 

Although the husband had a " major reaction " to the jab, the couple

had continued to sleep together and the wife had not stopped breast-

feeding their baby. About two weeks later, lesions appeared on the

infant's face and tongue.

 

Lab tests confirmed that mother and daughter had been exposed to

vaccinia. Neither had been vaccinated for smallpox.

 

Military officials are not exactly sure how the wife, who had handled

laundry possibly contaminated with vaccinia, was infected. They are,

however, fairly certain that the baby got the virus through breast-

feeding.

 

The report urged breast-feeding mothers living with people who have

been vaccinated against smallpox to be aware of the possibility of

exposure to vaccinia and take care not to spread it to their infants.

 

The Department of Defense, which has confirmed 18 cases of

inadvertent vaccinia transmission since December 2002, has been

advising vaccinated persons to cover up their vaccination sites, wash

their hands regularly and limit contact with infants.

 

The United States ended routine vaccinations for smallpox in 1972,

but decided in 2002 to resume them for soldiers and some health-care

workers as fears grew that the virus could be used as a weapon by

radical groups or countries like Iraq.

 

Smallpox kills about 30 percent of its victims and scars the

remainder for life.

 

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