End of an era for smallpox vaccine
End of an era for smallpox vaccine
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/01/Worldandnation/US_to_cut_food_aid_as.shtml
The government announced Friday that it has said goodbye to one of the world's greatest lifesavers - the oldest smallpox vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made arrangements this month to dispose of the last of its 12-million doses of Dryvax, and notified other health departments and the military to do the same by Friday.
Dryvax - produced by scraping virus off the skin of infected calves - is being replaced in federal vaccine stockpiles by a more modern product manufactured in laboratories. Dryvax was unusually dangerous for a vaccine, blamed in recent years for triggering heart attacks and a painful heart inflammation in some patients.
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/01/Worldandnation/US_to_cut_food_aid_as.shtml
The government announced Friday that it has said goodbye to one of the world's greatest lifesavers - the oldest smallpox vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made arrangements this month to dispose of the last of its 12-million doses of Dryvax, and notified other health departments and the military to do the same by Friday.
Dryvax - produced by scraping virus off the skin of infected calves - is being replaced in federal vaccine stockpiles by a more modern product manufactured in laboratories. Dryvax was unusually dangerous for a vaccine, blamed in recent years for triggering heart attacks and a painful heart inflammation in some patients.
