CDC Trains Officials on Smallpox
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began training state and local health officials Monday on how to recognize smallpox and quickly contain an outbreak spread by terrorists.
“It’s a sad day that we feel this meeting is necessary,” said Dr. Walter Orenstein, chief of the CDC’s National Immunization Program. “I hope and pray that this is a big waste of time.”
The CDC stressed it has no evidence that intentionally released smallpox is any more of a threat than it was before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But about 200 public health workers began three days of classes on how the highly contagious and deadly virus might be spread.
The virus, which could be much more dangerous than anthrax, causes a rash all over the body, and can be spread through the air.
“We have a large, susceptible civilian population,” Orenstein said. “The threat of smallpox is probably not zero, although it is close to zero, and given its severity we need to be better prepared.”
Mass vaccination against smallpox ended in the United States in 1972, and the disease was declared eradicated 1980.
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