So what is the deal with this small pox vaccination thing?

Nurses General Nursing

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Are they going to make it mandatory? What if you have an underlying condition that places you in a high risk catagory? Will you still have to take the shot or lose your job? What if you are one of the ten to fifteen per million who suffer substancial disability or death will you be eligible to receive some sort of compensation (or your family). If they make me take the shot and sign a waiver is that waiver legally enforceable since it is signed under the duress of losing my job?

i have to go to mandatory smallpox training later this month..will keep you all posted on my new "smallpox smarts"..lol

Specializes in Critical Care,Recovery, ED.

Points of clarification.

Getting the vaccination at this time is voluntary, unless you are a member of the Armed Services.

The vaccine that many of us received decades ago is believed to offer very limited or no protection at this time.

Small pox vaccine can be dangerous, the reason they first stopped rountinely giving the vaccine was because more people in the US were dying from the vaccine then the disease itself in this country. The US stopped routinely using the vaccine decades before the disease was wiped out world-wide. People who were traveling outside of US continued to get the vaccine depending where they were traveling to.

After you receive the vaccine your reaction may be communicable to other patients, particularly immuno suppressed patients. This can have a huge effect and risk to our health care system. If you get the vaccine should you continue to work and potentially infect patients?

As infection control in my place, I attend bioterrorism meetings in my region once a month. In my area the way this is working is this. There are 4 hospitals in the area that have been designated as the hospitals where any smallpox victims would be treated. In those 4 hospitals, we will be asking for volunteers to receive the smallpox vaccine and those will be the designated smallpox team. So IF we were to have a smallpox case it is only those who received the vaccine who will be treating any cases. The ID doc who heads infection control is requesting that only those who have already received vaccines take the vaccine a second time. Plus the CDC has specific guidelines so that anyone with risk factors are screened out.

The whole smallpox program is volunteer, in the civilian population anyway. Military is another matter, however the military is using the CDC guidelines for risk factors and currently they are not doing mass vaccinations either.

Anyone with specific questions should go to the CDC website where there is loads of information.

The vaccine area itself is considered contagious for a three week period, the time it generally takes for it to scab over and then the scab to fall off. Once the scab has fallen off you are no longer considered contagious. An occulasive dressing over the vaccine area is considered effective, and the screening tool from the CDC includes screening of family members that one lives with and some people will be screened out if there is a family member with risk factors.

The last year vaccines were given in the US general population was in 1972. The last case of smallpox in the US was in 1949, the last naturally occuring case in the world was in Somolia in 1977.

I have to stress that ONLY the site of vaccine is contagious, not you.

Interesting enough, one would think why is this a big deal? We have evolved so much in treating something as controllable as smallpox, why should we worry about it?

I go on to add "Why is this a big deal now all the sudden?.

I think Bush knows some privileged information about the use of small pox and terrorism tactics. And I believe that though small pox is seemingly non threatening in our advance world of healthcare technology -AND- seemingly harmless enough, that it would be a perfect venue to attack us with. I mean, who would've ever thought someone would use our airplanes and resources to attack us with, prior to 9/11?

With that in mind, anything is possible, and I'd consider getting vaccinated, just in case.

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Maybe the rumor that some vials of the stuff are missing from a vault in Russia is true.

And what will happen if they turn out to be the cargo on the next Kamikazi airplane?

Hello to all. I hope I'm doing this right....expect an "ERROR" sign any momemt. Anywho....regarding the Smallpox vaccine...the hospital I work at is just asking for volunteers to get the vaccine, therefore, we would be the ones called if such a case would arrive. I haven't heard anything about making it mandatory.

-wit

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