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Local News - February 2003 |
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Healthcare workers balk at smallpox vaccines By JEREMY ASHTON, LTN Staff Writer February 7, 2003 - Healthcare workers in Lincoln County will soon have the opportunity to be vaccinated against smallpox, but very few people are jumping at the chance. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that it has received a shipment of the smallpox vaccine and will begin administering it to public health and hospital personnel across the state on a voluntary basis. Like many of their colleagues, however, nurses and physicians at the Lincoln County Health Department and Lincoln Medical Center have questions relating to the vaccine that they need answered before taking it. “We’re all learning as we go because this is kind of a new process for us, but we’re trying to get our staff ready if and when we take vaccine,” said Connie Hall, the health department’s nursing director. Only four to six members of Hall’s staff, who would give the vaccine to the general public in case of a smallpox outbreak, plan to receive vaccinations. At LMC, 16 people originally signed up for the vaccine, but that number has dwindled to fewer than five. “They’re concerned about the unknowns,” said Elaine Berman, LMC’s vice president of nursing. The “unknowns” are the uncertain side effects of a vaccine that hasn’t been administered routinely in the United States since 1972, when smallpox was said to be eliminated from the country. Smallpox is a contagious, sometimes fatal disease that causes rashes of raised bumps and a high fever. Aside from a few known samples being kept in laboratories for research purposes, the virus was thought to be eradicated from the world in 1980. After bioterrorist attacks occurred in the United States in October 2001, President George W. Bush initiated a plan to resume smallpox vaccinations for response teams in case a terrorist group might have stockpiles of the virus that could be unleashed on U.S. citizens. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 14 and 52 people out of every million who are vaccinated could experience potentially life-threatening reactions. Out of that group, one or two could die. The people most at risk of developing serious problems from the vaccine are those with skin problems and weakened immune systems. The CDC additionally recommends that pregnant women should not receive the vaccine, and anyone younger than 18 years old or older than 65 should only get it in an emergency situation. As the list of precautions has been released, many of Hall’s nurses who could have received the vaccine have been eliminated from consideration. Berman said several LMC employees have decided not to take it because of the health risks and the lingering issue of financial compensation from the federal government for medical expenses and lost wages. While most vaccines are created from a “dead” virus that helps the patient develop immunity to a disease, the smallpox vaccine utilizes the “live” vaccinia virus, a less deadly relative of smallpox that can be transmitted to others in the first few weeks after vaccination. The potential for transmission makes anyone living with a person at risk of serious side effects ineligible from receiving the vaccine. Nurses and physicians would likely have to miss work, as well, since they could pass vaccinia on to patients. “Originally, several folks were interested, and then as more information came forth, those folks elected not to take the vaccine,” Berman said.
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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