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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (938)	12/26/2002 12:38:17 AM
From: mistermj	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Israel Decides Against General Smallpox Inoculation story.news.yahoo.com JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Health Ministry said on Wednesday it had decided for now against inoculating the general public for the deadly smallpox virus despite mounting fears of a U.S. war on Iraq. But the ministry said it would expand a program to inoculate thousands more rescue and emergency workers. "At this stage we have not decided to inoculate the general public but we did agree to open up the inoculation of the first response teams as far as possible," said Ido Hadari, a spokesman for the Health Ministry. Hadari said the ministry made the decision because there was no additional intelligence on Iraq's potential to use smallpox as a weapon against Israel in response to any U.S. strike. Israel has already vaccinated 15,000 emergency workers against the highly-infectious smallpox, with few side effects. "There are thousands more rescue workers...it can reach up to 100,000 people," Hadari said, citing firefighters, hospital and clinic staff, police and army personnel. The program is currently voluntary. Israeli media reported on Tuesday that Israeli military intelligence estimates that a U.S. offensive on Iraq was likely to start soon after a January 27 deadline for United Nations (news - web sites) inspectors to report their findings on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Advocates against a mass inoculation note that the vaccine itself can cause severe side effects or even death in a few cases, and that such a program can spread unnecessary panic. In a sign of the mounting concern, two leading Israeli healthcare providers opened this week a hotline for anxious citizens to answer their questions on smallpox and the vaccine. Babies born in Israel were inoculated against smallpox until 1980, when the disease was declared defunct worldwide, and all Israeli military conscripts were vaccinated until 1996. About half of Israel's population of six million people are estimated to have received the inoculation at some time in their lives. "There is no new information (about a threatened outbreak of the disease) and we are doing everything to be ready for a situation in which we can inoculate the entire public within a few days if necessary," Hadari said. "Once we have our first response teams inoculated and a contingency plan (for the wider public), we can feel quite safe," he said. Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel during the U.S.-led 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), resulting in one death and few other casualties. Iraq denies developing weapons of mass destruction. But Israel now fears that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) may have equipped any remaining missiles with chemical and biological agents, though some infectious disease experts doubt that the smallpox virus could be packed into a warhead.