Health officials endorse smallpox vaccine for public

WASHINGTON -- The nation's top public health officials said on Friday that they favored offering smallpox vaccine to the public, but only after up to 10-million health care workers are immunized and after a vaccine is licensed for general use, which is not likely until 2004.

It was the first time the officials have said the public should have access to the vaccine, which carries significant risk of serious side effects. But the final decision rests with President Bush, and a White House spokesman said the issue was under review.

The health officials, who included Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, outlined a strategy that could go far beyond what they were considering just a few months ago, when they were talking about offering the vaccine to 500,000 health care workers facing the greatest risk of handling a smallpox case.

"Right now our thinking is in favor of making the vaccine available to the general public after we have ensured that we can adequately" immunize health care professionals, Gerberding said.

She cautioned that the officials were not recommending that Americans take the vaccine, but rather that they have the option of weighing the risks and benefits for themselves.

"No one believes we should make it available to the general public right now," Gerberding said.

Officials also announced that 1-million doses of smallpox vaccine will be provided to the military.

The government halted routine vaccinations in 1972 as the disease was being eradicated from the world. But the terror attacks last year and the possibility of war with Iraq have caused health officials to consider a new battle against the disease.

"We are still in an environment where we have no imminent threat," Gerberding said. "But there are countries with weapons of mass destruction that probably include smallpox. We need to be mindful that the context of this decision has changed a bit. Anyone who reads a newspaper couldn't help but notice that."

When the vaccine was used, "life-threatening complications" occurred at a rate of 15 per million among those who received their first smallpox vaccination, and the number included about one to two deaths, Gerberding said.

The rates would be lower among those who were re-vaccinated, Gerberding said. But, she added, "how much lower, we don't know."

U.S. troops destroy hundreds of bombs

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- U.S. troops have destroyed the largest cache of explosives yet found in Afghanistan -- hundreds of 500-pound bombs buried in a dry riverbed near Kandahar, the military said Friday.

The cache of 420 air-to-ground bombs was found in the Dori River channel last month, but it took munitions experts weeks to examine the explosives and decide how to deal with them, Air Force Maj. Steve Clutter said.

After evacuating residents, demolition teams used 30,000 pounds of C-4 explosive to destroy the bombs in a single blast Thursday. Army photos of the blast showed a huge mushroom cloud rising over the site.

FBI to investigate blast in the Philippines

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- FBI agents arrived in the southern Philippines on Friday to investigate a bomb attack that killed three people, including an American Green Beret.

Philippine military officials blamed the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf for Wednesday's blast, which injured 24 people. They said the explosives were similar to those found in an unexploded bomb believed to have been planted by the guerrillas on nearby Jolo Island in August.

Also . . .

MAN SENTENCED IN MOSQUE PLOT: An immigrant from Trinidad received a federal prison sentence of almost five years Friday for a terrorist bombing plot hatched in a mosque.

Shueyb Mossa Jokhan suggested Mount Rushmore as a target after he, a Pakistani Muslim and FBI informers talked about bombing an armory, electrical substations and Jewish businesses. No attacks were launched, and no weapons were obtained.

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