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CNN Live At Daybreak

CDC Pulls Smallpox Experts Out of Retirement to Educate Current Medical Community

Aired November 05, 2001 - 08:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: After more than a month, officials still don't know where that anthrax is coming from. They also want to know why it keeps turning up in various locations, although the prevailing theory is that it's largely been the result of cross-contamination from one or more anthrax-tainted letters.

And now, there is growing concern over smallpox. Medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland is outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta -- good morning. What's the latest from there this morning, Rhonda?

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Paula. Smallpox is actually just one of the potential biological threats that the CDC is preparing for. But smallpox is probably the most worrisome, because it's highly contagious, and it's also deadly about 30 percent of the time. Routine immunizations against the virus ended in the United States in 1972. It was eradicated globally in 1980.

Now, this week at the CDC, former CDC experts, who were involved in the 1970s eradication campaign, are being brought out of retirement to teach current CDC experts about a virus that they've never seen. To get prepared, these experts are being vaccinated against smallpox.

Theoretically, if there was an outbreak, these newly-trained teams would go into the field to try to contain it. So this week, they'll be learning about the virology, how to recognize it, how to take laboratory samples, and how to administer the smallpox vaccine.

The CDC currently has a stockpile of 15 million doses of the vaccine, and that's not nearly enough to handle a large outbreak. So studies are under way today at four U.S. medical centers to see if the supply can be diluted and stretched to protect more people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to look at undiluted vaccine, a vaccine that's been diluted five times, and a vaccine that's been diluted 10 times. If we are able to multiply the available doses fives times, we may have as much as 75 million doses available.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLAND: The government is also working on a new second- generation smallpox vaccine. Health officials, right now, are negotiating with vaccine makers to increase the supply to 300 million doses by the end of next year. That would be enough for every American, if the smallpox vaccine is needed -- Paula.

ZAHN: Rhonda Rowland, thanks.

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