- Governments around the world have been warned to prepare
against a terrorist smallpox attack which could kill millions. The World
Health Organisation has told them to ensure they can produce enough vaccine
to protect their population against the disease, and is preparing to order
mass precautionary vaccination of all citizens.
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- 'The unthinkable is no longer unthinkable and we need
to prepare for that,' said a spokesperson for the WHO, the United Nations'
health agency. 'There has been a lot of concern about a smallpox outbreak.
The numbers it would kill are scary.'
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- The British Government last week issued emergency guidance
to health professionals on how to deal with an outbreak. The guidance,
seen by The Observer, says smallpox is a serious threat because it is easily
passed from person to person, has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent,
can kill in 48 hours, and few people have been vaccinated. 'In the event
of a deliberate release, it is unlikely that single, mild cases will occur
- it is more likely that clusters of moderate to severe disease will be
seen.'
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- The WHO masterminded the eradication of smallpox in 1977
and since the early Eighties has advised governments not to vaccinate.
Most under-40s in the UK have not been immunised.
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- Following the US anthrax attacks, which by last night
had infected a reported 38 people, concern there about a smallpox outbreak
is so high that it has ordered 300 million doses of the vaccine from Cambridge-based
biotech company Acambis. Medical studies suggest that an out break in the
US would kill around a million people in three months. The NHS has ordered
supplies, but it is not thought to be enough to cover the population.
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- Last week, Gro Harlem Bruntland, the WHO's director-general,
told its Smallpox Advisory Group to consider whether to tell all governments
to go ahead with mass vaccination.
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- It is a devastating setback for the WHO, which considers
the eradication of smallpox its greatest achievement. It is also not without
danger, since vaccination can cause severe side-effects, including permanent
brain damage, or even death.
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- After its eradication, the smallpox virus was kept in
only two laboratories in the world - in Atlanta in the US, and Koltsovo
in Siberia. The last two samples were due to be destroyed next year. However,
a Soviet defector revealed that the dying Communist regime used smallpox
in a missile programme.
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- There have also been allegations that supplies were sold
to Iraq and North Korea.
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- Initial smallpox symptoms include fever, severe headache,
back and chest pains and intense anxiety. Victims develop blotchy rashes,
often with purple lesions, followed by a face rash similar to sunburn and
severe scarring.
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- Death can take from 48 hours to two weeks. There is no
treatment.
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- http://www.observer.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,1373,578111,00.html
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