WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Military personnel likely to be sent to war in Iraq are being directed to receive the smallpox vaccine as are uniformed or civilian military healthcare workers, unless they are medically exempted, according to the Pentagon.
The vaccine program is strictly voluntary as the Centers for Disease Control considers all smallpox vaccines to be new drugs still being investigated, Defense Department documents say. Recipients must receive education on the vaccine and its possible side effects, they must give their informed consent, and the shot must be documented.
Only the president can waive the requirement for service member consent to the treatment.
The vaccine is meant to provide protection against smallpox which was finally eradicated worldwide in 1979 but remains one of the most feared biological weapons and may be in Iraq's secret arsenal, to U.S. intelligence sources said.
The CDC projects one or two deaths per million people vaccinated, and a small number of cases of serious encephalitis and skin disorders. If not treated within the first few days of exposure, roughly 30 percent of smallpox victims will die from the disease.
The Defense Department used to vaccinate recruits against smallpox but suspended the program in 1990. About 7 percent of military personnel vaccinated in the 1980s would die if exposed to the disease without revaccination. That number climbs to 11 percent for those inoculated in the 1970s, according to the Defense Department.
First to be vaccinated will be smallpox response teams and healthcare workers as well as military personnel likely to be sent to war in Iraq or elsewhere in U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility.
However, according to a Dec. 13 memo sent by the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David Chu, refusal to take the smallpox vaccine, for medical reasons or otherwise, will not automatically disqualify a person from being deployed to a battlefield or theater where smallpox may be used as a weapon.
The appearance of even one case of smallpox indicates its probable use as a bioweapon, according to Defense Department documents. Because it is so quickly and easily spread, a single case would require an "immediate and coordinate(d) public health and medical response to contain the outbreak."
The CDC recommends not taking the vaccine if pregnant, living with a child less than 1 year old, or living with someone suffering an immune deficiency or a history of eczema.
Military or civilian personnel who would be required to take the vaccine but are leaving the service within 30 days will likely receive an administrative exemption.
As many as 300 military personnel, many of them reservists, refused to accept the controversial six-shot anthrax vaccine -- a program that has since been largely suspended for lack of vaccine. The exact numbers of anthrax "refusniks" are not kept by the Pentagon. Neither was the way commanders dealt with them: some were court-martialed, others received administrative punishments that could affect their promotions, and still others were "verbally counseled."
However, medical record for the smallpox vaccine will be kept far more rigorously, according to the memo. Military medical record keeping has been famously flawed, particularly during the Gulf War, which has made tracking the potential causes of the still undefined "Gulf War syndrome" extremely difficult.
Army Secretary Thomas White will oversee the vaccination program for the Defense Department.
