杏吧原创

IF YOU had a smallpox vaccination as a child and think you鈥檙e still protected, think again. Almost everyone vaccinated before smallpox was eradicated in the mid-1970s has now lost their immunity.

The bad news comes from a study of 621 microbiologists in Maryland who received fresh vaccinations between 1994 and 2001 to protect them in their work. Only about 40, or just 6 per cent, were still immune from their earlier vaccinations.

鈥淭he study is, to the best of my knowledge, the only one since eradication which tries to look at the durability of immunity,鈥� says lead author Michael Sauri, director of the Occupational Medicine Clinic in Maryland. 鈥淚t鈥檚 showing us that after 20 years immunity is not going to be there.鈥�

In the US, for example, about 60 per cent of the population has had a smallpox vaccination. The study suggests that most of these people are now just as susceptible to smallpox as the 120 million born since the government halted vaccination in 1972.

That strengthens the case for pre-emptive immunisation, some experts think. 鈥淚t adds to the argument that you can鈥檛 count on any protection we thought we had,鈥� says Bill Bicknell of Boston University, a former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health who has been arguing for mass vaccination since the anthrax attacks, in case terrorists try smallpox next.

He thinks that outbreaks would be much easier to contain if almost everyone is vaccinated. 鈥淚鈥檓 not saying you just go straight in and vaccinate the population鈥攜ou鈥檇 do it steadily in stages,鈥� Bicknell says. Healthcare workers would be first, followed by volunteers screened to check they鈥檙e healthy.

But extrapolating from figures from the last mass vaccination in 1968 suggests at least 180 people would die of complications. That鈥檚 a high price to pay for protection against an attack that may never happen.

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta believes mass vaccination is unnecessary and it can deal with an outbreak through 鈥渞ing vaccination鈥� of people in the affected zone, plus their contacts. It says its contingency plans for dealing with a smallpox outbreak, which will be reviewed this month, assume that no one is immune anyway.

In Britain, where smallpox vaccination stopped in 1980, the Department of Health is taking the same approach. 鈥淲e won鈥檛 be relying on any current immunity of the population,鈥� says a spokesman.

Nevertheless, Harold Margolis, the CDC鈥檚 chief adviser on smallpox preparedness, remains convinced that there are higher levels of immunity in the general population than the study suggests. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know a lot about the determinants of long-term immunity,鈥� he says.

Previous studies earlier this century in England and in the US suggested that immunity could last 50 years or more, Margolis says. 鈥淚t won鈥檛 protect you against infection, but it might protect you from death.鈥� He also pins hopes on a 1990 Israeli study showing that antibodies against the virus last for decades.