As anxious as the country is over anthrax, the isolated outbreaks are only a lukewarm version of what a true infectious-disease hot zone would look like. Because anthrax is rarely contagious, the exposures to the bacteria have been well contained. But with other agents, that may not be so easy. Smallpox in particular has public health officials concerned. Since 1980, when the World Health Organization declared that the disease had been eradicated, the world's population has not been vaccinated. The U.S. ended routine immunizations in 1971, and even for those who got the shots as children, the vaccine's period of effectiveness...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
