Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/smallpox/news/mar2811newsscan.html
NEWS SCAN: Four contact vaccinia cases, polio vaccination in Sierra Leone
Mar 28, 2011
Smallpox shot in military member led to four vaccinia cases
Four people contracted vaccinia virus infections, leading in one case to systemic symptoms, as a result of direct or indirect contact with a US military man who had received a smallpox shot, according to a report in Emerging Infectious Diseases. The military member was vaccinated on Feb 23, 2010, and on Feb 27 he wrestled with two other men in a semiprofessional match, during which his vaccination-site dressing came off. Both of those wrestlers suffered skin lesions within 3 days. One of the two wrestled another man on Mar 5, and the latter subsequently had skin lesions on his chest. One of the men required treatment for erythema and early blepharitis of his left eyelid. In addition, a 29-year-old female household contact of the first case-patient suffered lesions along her lower jaw, followed by fever, chills, arthralgia, submandibular swelling, and a lesion in her right nostril. After her physician and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDH) consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she was treated with vaccinia immune globulin, lead author Gregory E. Young of the NYSDH told CIDRAP News, which alleviated the pain of her lesions within 24 hours. Vaccinia virus was confirmed in all four patients, and gene sequencing in three of the cases linked the virus to the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine. The report says the cases point up the need to ensure that military vaccinees understand the risks associated with contact transmission of vaccinia. On Mar 16 the same journal published a report of four similar vaccinia cases that were linked to a martial arts gym.
Apr 20l1 EID report
Mar 16 CIDRAP News story on earlier report
Nationwide polio vaccine drive targets children in Sierra Leone
Hundreds of health workers recently fanned out across Sierra Leone in an effort to vaccinate more than 1 million children under age 5 against polio and restore the country's previous polio-free status, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Mar 25. The 4-day nationwide campaign is part of a broader effort to vaccinate children in 14 countries, said Tity Turay, a health ministry official. The campaign is being supported by the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, and other development partners. The story said Sierra Leone was free of polio from 2000 until July 2009, when 13 cases were reported; the most recent case was reported in February 2010. The WHO representative in the country, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, told AFP, "Despite two preventive and three reactive rounds of immunization campaigns in 2009 and two in March 2010, there is evidence that the wild polio virus continues to circulate in the country and the west coast of Africa."
Mar 25 AFP report
NEWS SCAN: Four contact vaccinia cases, polio vaccination in Sierra Leone
Mar 28, 2011
Smallpox shot in military member led to four vaccinia cases
Four people contracted vaccinia virus infections, leading in one case to systemic symptoms, as a result of direct or indirect contact with a US military man who had received a smallpox shot, according to a report in Emerging Infectious Diseases. The military member was vaccinated on Feb 23, 2010, and on Feb 27 he wrestled with two other men in a semiprofessional match, during which his vaccination-site dressing came off. Both of those wrestlers suffered skin lesions within 3 days. One of the two wrestled another man on Mar 5, and the latter subsequently had skin lesions on his chest. One of the men required treatment for erythema and early blepharitis of his left eyelid. In addition, a 29-year-old female household contact of the first case-patient suffered lesions along her lower jaw, followed by fever, chills, arthralgia, submandibular swelling, and a lesion in her right nostril. After her physician and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDH) consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she was treated with vaccinia immune globulin, lead author Gregory E. Young of the NYSDH told CIDRAP News, which alleviated the pain of her lesions within 24 hours. Vaccinia virus was confirmed in all four patients, and gene sequencing in three of the cases linked the virus to the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine. The report says the cases point up the need to ensure that military vaccinees understand the risks associated with contact transmission of vaccinia. On Mar 16 the same journal published a report of four similar vaccinia cases that were linked to a martial arts gym.
Apr 20l1 EID report
Mar 16 CIDRAP News story on earlier report
Nationwide polio vaccine drive targets children in Sierra Leone
Hundreds of health workers recently fanned out across Sierra Leone in an effort to vaccinate more than 1 million children under age 5 against polio and restore the country's previous polio-free status, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Mar 25. The 4-day nationwide campaign is part of a broader effort to vaccinate children in 14 countries, said Tity Turay, a health ministry official. The campaign is being supported by the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, and other development partners. The story said Sierra Leone was free of polio from 2000 until July 2009, when 13 cases were reported; the most recent case was reported in February 2010. The WHO representative in the country, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, told AFP, "Despite two preventive and three reactive rounds of immunization campaigns in 2009 and two in March 2010, there is evidence that the wild polio virus continues to circulate in the country and the west coast of Africa."
Mar 25 AFP report