County Awaits Smallpox Vaccine for 1,500 Workers

Ventura County hopes to receive enough smallpox vaccine in the coming weeks to inoculate 1,500 medical and emergency care workers, officials said.

The county is awaiting word from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on whether its full request for vaccine during the first phase of distribution will be granted, said Dr. Robert Levin, the county’s public health officer.

“We’ve asked for about 1,500 [doses],” Levin said, “but what the CDC decides to give us may be significantly less than that. It’s not clear when we’ll hear. But we’re poised to act when we do.”

At the top of the county’s list for vaccination are doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, firefighters and police officers -- those who would respond first to a bioterrorist attack or treat the victims of one.

If the county receives less than its request, a plan is in place to modify the list, Levin said.

“We’re at the point where it would take about 10 minutes,” he said.

The county has submitted its request to a state agency that will forward it to the CDC along with those from every other California county except Los Angeles County, which is submitting its own request.

The state Department of Health Services is requesting about 40,000 doses for areas outside of Los Angeles County, which is requesting about 9,000.

Levin said that while he could not give a firm timetable for vaccinations to begin, all signs indicate that the CDC will act quickly.

The smallpox virus, which is highly contagious, was eradicated worldwide in the 1970s, but officials fear that vials of the virus kept in storage in the former Soviet Union may have fallen into the hands of terrorists.

The concern took on new urgency after last year’s Sept. 11 attacks and anthrax scares.

President Bush recently signed off on a national immunization plan for emergency workers, but advised against inoculations for the average citizen at this point.

National health officials have estimated that 500,000 health workers would be vaccinated in the first round of inoculations. The Pentagon has requested another 500,000 doses for its troops. A second round of vaccinations in 2003 could reach 10 million people nationwide, Levin said.