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(Little
Rock) - The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) is
temporarily suspending its smallpox vaccination clinics to
review new recommendations and to await additional findings
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
With
935 Arkansas residents receiving the smallpox vaccination
as of March 28, no confirmed severe adverse events have
been reported in the state.
Last week the
CDC announced that it was investigating heart attacks and
other types of heart problems in people recently vaccinated.
The CDC has not confirmed that these events are related to the
vaccine but is investigating that possibility and has updated
the health screening procedures used during clinics.
“The agency and the CDC implemented a
careful screening process when it introduced the vaccination
program. This was done to minimize the number of serious
reactions that could result from the vaccine because a serious
reaction is always a possibility,” Dr. William Mason, ADH
Bioterrorism Preparedness Team Medical Leader, said. “As
soon as concerns surfaced last week, the CDC and ADH added
history of heart disease to the list of contraindications used
in screening prospective vaccine recipients.”
Screening,
education and safety monitoring will minimize, but not
eliminate, serious reactions to the vaccine. Even though
agency vaccinators have carefully screened all volunteer
recipients, the decision to suspend clinics resulted from a
CDC recommendation received late March 31. That same day, the
U.S. Public Health Service’s Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices (ACIP) also recommended that
individuals with three or more known cardiac risk factors
should not be vaccinated at this time. For a list of the risk
factors, visit the CDC website at www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/heartproblems.asp.
“We
have always known and acknowledged that there
are serious – but extremely rare – risks linked to the
vaccine,” Mason said. “We initiated this program with the health of
volunteers as our primary concern. Suspending clinics is
simply a continuation of our ongoing concern for public health.”
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