LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Smallpox: Smallpox Vaccine
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Smallpox vaccine was discontinued as a routine vaccine in the USA in 1971 and the last naturally occurring case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977. Since 1982, the International Certificate of Vaccination no longer included a space to record smallpox vaccination and the vaccine was not required for international travel. Also, in 1982, the United States discontinued the production of smallpox vaccine, but because of the current increasing threat of the reintroduction of smallpox from international terrorists, the vaccine is again being produced in the USA. In an emergency situation, the United States currently has sufficient quantities of the vaccine to vaccinate every single person in the country. However, at this time, smallpox vaccine is not recommended for the general public.
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Smallpox is an infection caused by the variola virus. For centuries, epidemics of smallpox affected people all over the globe, and the disease was often serious. But in 1796, an English doctor named Edward Jenner discovered a way to protect people from getting smallpox, and his experiments eventually led to the development of the first smallpox vaccine.
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Smallpox vaccination is not currently being done for members of the general public. As of mid-2003, any further vaccination outside of military personnel is likely to be done, in a closely supervised fashion, in health care workers and emergency responders. There is ongoing review of smallpox vaccination, including the current and newer vaccines.
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Smallpox continues to spread in many parts of the world, echoing its formerly endemic character. Without vaccine, the only control method is isolation, which hinders, but cannot halt, the spread of the disease. By year's end, endemic smallpox is reestablished in 14 countries. The World Health Assembly schedules a debate on reenacting a global smallpox eradication campaign.
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Smallpox vaccine is active only if administered in the first four days post-exposure (note that the incubation period is 7-17 days). Vaccination after exposure has an effect ranging from preventing illness to decreasing fatality, with earlier vaccination producing the best results. There are 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 vaccination doses (manufactured in the 1970s, hence viability is unknown) available in the U.S. and no nation or health organization has any surplus. Vaccine is being produced in the U.S., and the first 40 million doses scheduled for delivery in 2004. Persons who are immunocompromised may not be able to tolerate the vaccine (Henderson et al, 1999; Henderson, D.A.; Johns Hopkins University, 2000; Kortepeter & Parker, 1999).
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Smallpox, the most universally feared of all diseases during recent centuries, is now a vaccine preventable disease of historical interest only, its global eradication having been certified in 1980. Before vaccination was practiced, almost everyone eventually contracted the disease. Better sanitation and improved economic conditions had little influence on the incidence of the disease. Smallpox could occur and spread in any country, and case fatality rates were little altered by therapy. Case fatality rates of 20% or higher were associated with outbreaks of variola major, the only known variety until the end of the 19th century. Most of those who survived had distinctive residual facial pock marks, and some were blind.
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Smallpox Vaccine