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medpundit |
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Friday, November 15, 2002It found that if 80 percent of the people in close contact with a smallpox case were inoculated in a community that had no pre-existing immunity then there would be a death rate of about 19.6 per 1,000. With some pre-existing immunity, however, the death rate per 1,000 would drop to about 1.8 per 1,000. The argument within the article seems to be between mass post-attack vaccination and targeted post-attack vaccination, but the study clearly shows that there's a benefit to pre-attack vaccination. Relying only on post-attack vaccination, whether targeted or massive, is the worst choice. It would be almost impossible to locate and vaccinate everyone who came in contact with a smallpox case, and it's logistically impossible to vaccinate everyone in a community after an attack. I'd say this study stands as another argument in favor of voluntary pre-attack vaccination. posted by Sydney on 11/15/2002 08:34:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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