Having been interested in the post on home care of smallpox, I found this report from the Journal of the American Medical Association that seems quite thorough:

JAMA link [Hi, Max, I hotlinked it for you since these other admins are lazy buggers.]

"Home care for most patients is a reasonable approach, given the fact that little can be done for a patient other than to offer supportive therapy" - JAMA

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Answers

It's a good read. The following passages caught my attention:

The seasonal occurrence of smallpox was . . . was highest during winter and early spring. This pattern was consonant with the observation that the duration of survival of orthopoxviruses in the aerosolized form was inversely proportional to both temperature and humidity.9 Likewise, when imported cases occurred in Europe, large outbreaks sometimes developed during the winter months, rarely during the summer.

I wonder what the spread was like in the US in those early outbreaks? Were there very few cases in the South, even in the winter? One presumes that the terrorists have this information and so might wait until colder weather to introduce the virus--if they introduce it.

The article mentions that WHO has 500,000 doses of smallpox vaccine. I presume they still have it. If so, I haven't heard anything about them offering any of it to us if necessary. Then there was the following info about vaccination:

Vaccination administered within 4 days of first exposure has been shown to offer some protection against acquiring infection and significant protection against a fatal outcome. Those who have been vaccinated at some time in the past will normally exhibit an accelerated immune response. Thus, it would be prudent, when possible, to assign those who had been previously vaccinated to duties involving close patient contact.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

not sure just what is good news and what is bad, here.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

This is the same Consensus Statement that was referenced in the TB thread on Osterholm's (one of the authors of the Statement) radio comments that there is a window of time during which anthrax testing isn't productive. Lots of other good stuff in the Statement, worth printing out. Apparently prepared 1998/1999 and released 1999.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001