Smallpox looms large—in life, and on the web

Abstract

Several new websites devoted to smallpox preparedness launched recently, and many established sites were updated to reflect growing concerns about a smallpox bioterrorist attack. The trigger was US President Bush's announcement that military personnel would be vaccinated against smallpox, and that the vaccine would offered on a voluntary basis to medical professionals and emergency personnel and response teams that would be the first on the scene in a smallpox emergency (see p 60 and http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021213-7.html). Details of the vaccination programme and assurances that the USA has plenty of vaccine to hand were quickly posted on the CDC website (http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/vaccination-program-statement.asp). About the same time, the non-profit RAND institute released a study that warns that undertaking widespread smallpox vaccination is “too dangerous” in the absence of a “substantial” risk of a major biological attack (http://www.rand.org/pox.html); the study was published in the January 30, 2003, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and may be downloaded free of charge on the journal's website (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/NEJMsa025075v1.pdf). Nonetheless, Bush himself was vaccinated (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/22/national/22VACC.html), and shortly thereafter, the US government launched Smallpox.gov (http://www.smallpox.gov) and the Infectious Diseases Society launched Bioterrorism Information and Resources (http://www.idsociety.org/BT/ToC.htm). Highlights of the new sites are included here, along with details on other smallpox information sites of interest.