Wisconsin is gradually preparing for the possibility of smallpox vaccinations, according to city and county officials.
Dane County officials are making no specific steps to plan for a mass vaccination, but the federal government has given them guidelines on how they could conduct smallpox vaccinations, according to Gareth Johnson, the administrator of the Dane County division of Public Health. He said county officials are awaiting a national decision to vaccinate or not.
“Of all the vaccines we have, smallpox is the most dangerous,” Johnson said. “It is expected to kill one in every one million vaccinated.”
Individuals vaccinated with smallpox face a one in 150,000 chance of a serious side effect. The possibility of serious side effects for those with weakened immune systems, such as individuals with cancer, is ten times higher.
Johnson said the federal legislature is currently grappling with the decision to authorize the vaccination of 300,000 health and law-enforcement officials.
“They don’t know if they are justified to endanger one percent of the population without a clear and present threat,” Johnson said.
Johnson said smallpox vaccination is an issue of heated debate among county officials.
“Back in the days when smallpox was a serious threat, it made sense to vaccinate everyone,” he said. “But under a theoretical threat, I’m not sure it makes good sense.”
Johnson said if a mass smallpox vaccination were to take effect, the vaccinations would take place in the form of a broad community-wide operation conducted by all individuals qualified to give vaccinations. He said plans would be challenging, because no one has ever experimented with a similar operation.
“We don’t know where clinics would be or how they would be staffed,” Johnson said.
Madison has immunization treatment materials for anthrax, antibiotics and other nerve-gas antidotes, but none for smallpox.
The federal government has allocated funds for Wisconsin to brace itself against a bioterrorism emergency, according to Tommy Schneider, Madison’s Environmental Health and Laboratories director.
The federal money has provided emergency-response equipment and training for the police and fire departments, she said.
Federally funded purchases include communications, decontamination and air-monitoring equipment.
“We also have minimal protective equipment if we had to go out in the field,” Schneider said.
Johnson said Dane County now has a federally employed epidemiologist to help coordinate potential emergency responses.
He said if immunizations went into effect, the Public Health Department would offer information regarding the risks of the vaccination.
The public health system is taking responsibility to weigh all the factors involved in a potential vaccination, Johnson said.