Emory Healthcare Begins Smallpox Vaccinations
ATLANTA -- A small number of doctors and nurses in Emory Healthcare
will receive smallpox vaccinations as a precautionary measure in accordance
with national preparedness plans developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Dr. David Stephens, Executive
Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine in the Emory University
School of Medicine, said that about 10 Emory Healthcare professionals
have been vaccinated to date and up to 10 more may be vaccinated in
coming weeks in the initial response to the potential threat of bioterrorism
and associated recommendations issued by the Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices.
Leaders of Emory Healthcare,
including Dr. Stephens, Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, vice president for academic
health affairs, and hospital epidemiologists from Emory University Hospital
and Emory Crawford Long Hospital, decided on Emory Healthcare's limited
vaccination strategy after carefully weighing known risks and potential
benefits.
Although the Emory University
Hospitals were not included in Georgia's plans for the first phase of
smallpox vaccination, Emory physicians might be called on to treat several
categories of persons infected by smallpox or vaccinia, according to
Dr. Stephens. Those persons could include researchers and employees
at the CDC; Emory's own researchers working on vaccinia or related viruses;
and Emory Hospitals doctors treating military-related cases of smallpox
or vaccinia.
Weighing against widespread
vaccination, on the other hand, are the known risks of smallpox vaccination
for persons who suffer from eczema or have suppressed immune systems
from chemotherapy or conditions such as HIV/AIDS. The vaccinia virus
that is used to induce immunity to smallpox is also contagious by touch.
The Emory guidelines state that doctors and nurses who are immunized
will be precluded from working with immuno-compromised patients until
the period of contagion passes, up to 21 days when the vaccination scar
separates from the skin.
Emory employees who are vaccinated,
whether at Emory or elsewhere, will be required to notify the respective
Infection Control Department at Emory University Hospital or Emory Crawford
Long Hospital. Infection control specialists will confer with their
supervisors and evaluate the employees' work situations to make sure
that patient safety is protected during the time it takes for the vaccination
scar to heal. Safety measures will include wearing semi-permeable dressings
on the vaccination site, long sleeves, and careful adherence to hand
hygiene.
The approximately 10 infectious
disease specialists, nurse practitioners and laboratory researchers
who have been vaccinated at Emory are all volunteers. Persons with previous
immunizations, even if they were given decades ago as children, seem
to be less likely to suffer severe adverse reactions.
"We believe this is the most
responsible course of action to protect our own employees and patients,
while still preparing for what we hope is the distant prospect of smallpox
bioterrorism," said Dr. Koplan. "If there is any documented case of
smallpox anywhere in the world, we do have a supply of smallpox vaccine
on hand and we have the ability to immunize many more Emory Healthcare
workers rapidly. We continue to reevaluate the relative risks and benefits
of smallpox vaccination in consultation with experts on our faculty
and at CDC and with colleagues at the Georgia Department of Health."
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