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Previous Volume 348:460-463 January 30, 2003 Number 5 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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According to federal,¹ academic,² and lay³ observers, smallpox might be used as a weapon of terrorism. Variola virus is presumed to be available,⁴ and a terrorist could introduce it, leading to secondary spread and deaths. Current policy is to promote vaccination, initally to 1/2 million hospital-selected health care providers⁵ and subsequently to as many as 10 million others.⁶ This policy should be compared with alternatives in the light of the likely outcome of an introduction of variola virus into this country. Three decades ago, I was among those who investigated the dynamics of smallpox transmission by direct observation in Pakistan.

Risk of Smallpox

. . . [Full Text of this Article]

Vaccination Policy

Costs and Benefits

Better Options

Source Information

From the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

This article was published at www.nejm.org on December 19, 2002.

Related Letters:

Smallpox and Smallpox Vaccination
Letai A. G., Snyder K. M., Fett J. D., Worthington M. G., Ross J. J., Neff J. M., Lane J. M., Fulginiti V. A., Milton D. K., Bozzette S. A., Boer R., Mack T., Sepkowitz K. A.
Extract | Full Text | PDF  
N Engl J Med 2003; 348:1920-1925, May 8, 2003. Correspondence

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