Dr Kerryn Phelps, Health Editor, Channel Nine, 'Today'
WILKINS: With bio-terrorism scares continuing around the world, Australian health officials are negotiating with international organisations to obtain the Smallpox vaccine. Currently there is none in the country, and overseas stocks are very limited. This follows a warning from the World Health Organisation that nations should be prepared for the next wave of biological warfare, which could possibly include Smallpox. We're joined now by 'Today' Health Editor, Dr Kerryn Phelps. Thanks for coming in, Kerryn. We thought we'd seen the end of Smallpox, didn't we?
PHELPS: We certainly did. In fact the last case of Smallpox would have happened before I even went into medical school. So that's how long ago it was, and the World Health Organisation recommended all countries cease vaccination by about 1980, so to think about this shocking disease being released in to the world's population now is just so alarming.
WILKINS: The World Health Organisation is now apparently considering recommending vaccinations for the entire populations of countries deemed to be at risk, and I guess that is us. Is it a) possible and b) practical?
PHELPS: At the moment, neither. There is some vaccine that has been freeze dried since the 1970s that's available in the United States and some other countries. But the United States doesn't have enough for its own purposes, so if there was to be an outbreak anywhere in the world, it would have to be considered an international medical emergency, and the countries of the world would have to unite in a public health measure, which would have to include some sort of vaccination program. But in anticipation of that, the Americans and, I believe, every other country, should be looking at how we can go about not just using the vaccination supply that is now available in the United States and some other countries, but in developing better vaccines, because the vaccine that was available then…
WILKINS: What about the scar on my arm? Am I still immunised?
PHELPS: Yes, well a lot of us who are over the age of 30 have got the scar on the arm.
WILKINS: Snuck in there…
PHELPS: But unfortunately it would appear, although we don't know what the long term immunity is, but it would appear that after 5 to 10 years that your immunity has waned, so we have a got a world which is susceptible to Smallpox.
WILKINS: Should we have vaccines of Smallpox, and other diseases here, just in case?
PHELPS: Until recent weeks you'd have said it's such a remote possibility that, I mean, why would we possibly need to spend money and effort in looking at something like this, but nobody would have imagined that people would release Anthrax into the US population, or drive a commuter plane into the World Trade Centre. So, it is at least a potential threat. The American physicians are saying they consider it to be a real threat. I think that we need to see it as a possibility, and we need to gear up for that possibility, in the same way as we would gear up our defence forces for a perceived threat from international attack.
WILKINS: What are the side effects of any vaccination?
PHELPS: Vaccination itself can be quite dangerous, and the last report was about one in 13,000 people die from the vaccine. And some people developed encephalitis, and have had neurological complications. Some people, if you have a look at these photos that are coming up now, actually got some virus accidentally in the eye or on their face, which came from rubbing the site of the vaccine and then rubbing their eye. That's just the vaccine reaction, the normal kind of vaccine reaction that you saw, and anybody, as I said, over about the age 30 or 40 would remember having that spot on their arm if they were travelling overseas.
WILKINS: To what degree have these talks of bio-terrorism attacks impacted on the medical profession? And did you ever think you would see the day when you'd be sitting on national television talking about the threat of bio-terrorism, here in Australia.
PHELPS: I don't think any medical practitioner in this country would have anticipated that disease would be used as a weapon. But we have had to face that reality in the United States. We know that we are not yet prepared in Australia. In America, they are not yet prepared. This very old virus is very contagious. Unlike Anthrax, its incubation period is over 12 to 14 days. So you could get dozens of people infected from a primary case in that time. Sufferers are infectious whenever they have the rash. There is no proven treatment at the moment, and vaccines are not ideal. So there needs to be… and there is a very good article in the Journal of the American Medical Association just recently, which looked at this whole bio-terrorism threat from Smallpox, and what needed to be done to get not only America but countries around the world ready in the event of an attack. And it will take a monumental public health effort, and it will take a great effort in terms of preparing vaccines, not just old vaccine but new vaccine, and making sure that every country is prepared in the event that this might happen. The countries that would be worst affected would of course be the developing countries who don't have those public health measures, but nobody will be completely safe if this is unleashed.
WILKINS: Alright, Kerryn, thanks for your time this morning.
PHELPS: Thanks, Richard.
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