not much thought of until bio-terroism scares. |
| SUNDAY NEWS (LANCASTER, PA.) Sunday, October 28, 2001 Section: HEADLINE Front Page: A-1 Byline: Jon Rutter Sunday News Staff Writer |
| Company officials have brainstormed every possible security threat, according to state Rep. Thomas Armstrong of Marietta. |
| It's little wonder that Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories Inc., along the Susquehanna River in western Lancaster County, has stepped up security in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. |
| For years, the laboratory was the repository for the nation's only reserve of smallpox vaccine. |
| Neither Wyeth nor the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which owns the vaccine, would confirm whether it remains in storage here. |
| But the decades-old stockpile could become pivotal should terrorists unleash the deadly smallpox virus. |
| Last week, researchers were poised to start clinical trials that will determine whether the existing 15.4 million doses of vaccine can be diluted to provide 75 to 150 million doses. |
| Testing is expected to be completed by February, said a National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases official, who asked not to be identified. |
| Meanwhile, on Tuesday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson asked Congress for $509 million to buy 300 million doses of new vaccine " so every American will be assured there is a dose with their name on it if it is needed. " |
| No fresh vaccine was expected to be available before mid-winter. |
| Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus said he couldn't confirm whether new vaccine will be produced in Marietta. But he said the government and the laboratory are " in discussion " about how Wyeth can be of help. |
| The Feds have said they're unaware of any specific terrorist threats involving smallpox. No decision on mass innoculations has been reached. |
| For Dr. G. Gary Kirchner, a retired Lancaster surgeon who said smallpox poses a much greater danger than anthrax and other bioterrorism weapons, public access to vaccine can't come soon enough. |
| " If they released it, I'd be in line in a second. " |
| Regarded as the planet's most efficient biological killer, smallpox is thought to have risen in Africa 10,000 years before the birth of Christ. |
| The highly contagious virus is spread most easily from December to April, when dry, cold air helps it stay alive longer. Smallpox kills about 30 percent of those who contract it, and often disfigures and blinds survivors. |
| Eighteenth-century Europeans were the first to vaccinate against what they called " the speckled monster, " which is marked by fever, rash and scab-covered sores. |
| The Lancaster County Vaccine Farm started by Marietta physician H.M. Alexander in the late 1880s was once the world's largest smallpox vaccine producer and later gave rise to the modern-day laboratory along the Susquehanna River. |
| Wyeth-Ayerst, which is owned by American Home Products in Madison, N.J., manufactured the country's only remaining supply of vaccine in the 1970s. Dryvax, the freeze-dried virus was stored in rubber-stoppered vials at 20 degrees below zero Centigrade. |
| Many people alive today bear a coin-sized scar from the smallpox vaccination they received as young children. |
| By the 1970s, however, worldwide vaccinations had eradicated smallpox, and further innoculations were deemed unnecessary. |
| American companies have not produced smallpox vaccine since the 1980s. But proposals to destroy remaining live samples of the virus were never carried out for fear there would be no way to make new vaccine in an emergency. |
| That may have been prescient. |
| " The virus lives in Moscow, " Kirchner noted. " It lives in CDC. The best estimate is it's in Saddam Hussein's locker. " |
| Because smallpox vaccine loses its punch after about 10 years, he said, and because today's highly mobile citizenry would likely spread the disease widely before infection was detected, smallpox bioterrorism could be catastrophic. |
| Dr. D.A. Henderson, a top government bioterrorism adviser who led the effort to eliminate smallpox 25 years ago, told " 60 Minutes " newsman Mike Wallace last week that any terrorist effort to spread smallpox would likely focus on an aerosol form. |
| In Marietta, Rep. Armstrong said, the company that made the vaccine is doing everything it can to protect its resources and the community. |
| Last week, state police troopers were helping to patrol the Wyeth-Ayerst grounds. |
| " All upper management and security forces are from FBI and Secret Service backgrounds, " Armstrong said, and additional private security personnel were brought in following September 11. |
| " Their concern is to make sure they're protected sideways, overtop, all around. They're very, very concerned. They're not afraid because they know what ( safeguards ) they have. " |
| How effective the Wyeth vaccine would be in averting an epidemic is an open question. |
| " We have 15 million doses in supply, " CDC spokeswoman Bernadette Burden said last week during a phone interview. " We have not seen anything to suggest that those stockpiles are limited. " |
| Two years ago, according to newspaper records, another CDC spokeswoman, Barbara Reynolds, denied a rumor that the Wyeth vaccine was deteriorating. She assured a reporter that the material was potent enough to be diluted into 150 million doses. |
| But Reynolds acknowledged concern about the effectiveness of existing stores of vaccinia immune globulin, or VIG, a sister drug given to people who suffer side effects from smallpox vaccine. |
| At the time, it was reported that the VIG supply had turned a " pinkish hue. " |
| Last week, the Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that VIG potency remains unknown. |
| Still, the government is keen to find out how far it can stretch the Wyeth smallpox vaccine. |
| The Center for Vaccine Development at St. Louis University School of Medicine is one of four facilities in the United States studying the safety and effectiveness of diluted doses of Dryvax, according to a statement from the university. |
| Volunteers are to be innoculated with Dryvax at one-fifth, one-tenth and full strength levels, according to lead investigator Dr. Sharon E. Frey. |
| The diluted vaccines could potentially protect 75 to 150 million people, according to the university. |
| Meanwhile, Merck Vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis Pharma and other companies have briefed the Bush administration on their abilities to make fresh vaccine. |
| Production would likely have to start from scratch. |
| According to a 1999 CDC report, the traditional method of creating vaccine using a scarified, or punctured, calf flank is no longer acceptable because the process invariably introduces microbial contamination. |
| Some companies have said they cannot meet the government's timetable unless officials indemnify them and waive some regulations. |
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