- Nearly half of the Meuhedet HMO's staffers have refused
to take the smallpox vaccine being offered by the government - on a voluntary
basis - to 15,000 health and rescue workers who are expected to be on the
"front line" of a smallpox outbreak should there be a biological
warfare attack by a terrorist group or by Iraq.
-
- Meuhedet, however, is not alone. Nearly half of those
asked to volunteer at other HMOs, as well as some members of the security
forces and rescue squads, have said no to the vaccine, apparently due to
their fear of side effects and complications, HMO representatives told
the Knesset State Comptroller's Committee earlier this week.
-
- Many Israelis have no need to be vaccinated - until 1979,
all citizens were vaccinated against smallpox at birth, and until 1996,
all soldiers were vaccinated.
-
- Those being asked to be vaccinated are expected to be
the first group to deal with an outbreak of the deadly disease, which kills
between 30-40 percent of unvaccinated people exposed to the disease, should
the need arise.
-
- The odds of death or illness from side-effect complications
are much lower - one out of a million dies and one out of 250,000-300,000
contracts spinal meningitis, according to experts.
-
- But as much as the "front-line" volunteers
need to be vaccinated in case of an attack, it is just as important that
there is enough vaccinated blood to make antidotes for those who come down
with the disease. According to health ministry sources, the current supply
of antidotes would suffice for only about half of the population.
-
- The government designated some 15,000 people for vaccination,
and about 10,000 have been immunized. Health Ministry Director General
Boaz Lev plans to meet with hospital directors soon and write to health
system employees calling on them to volunteer for the vaccine.
-
- One doctor said that in years of vaccinating people he
had never come across a case of ill-adverse side effects from a smallpox
vaccine.
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- http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=22336
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