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Letter
Adventitious Viruses and Smallpox
Vaccine
Claude Chastel*
*Virus Laboratory, Brest, France
Suggested
citation for this article
To the Editor: Recently, Murphy and Osburn (1)
strongly argued for testing old smallpox vaccine stocks made in animal
skin for adventitious infectious agents such as viruses, mycoplasmas,
and eventually, prions. Their argument appears clearly justified after
unexpected cases of myopericarditis occurred during recent campaigns of
smallpox vaccinations in the United States (2).
To the long list of bovine viruses cited in this paper, it seems necessary
to add another, the pseudocowpox virus, a widespread parapoxvirus that
may infect humans. During the 1960s, this virus was identified in vaccine
lymph from a heifer at the Institut Pasteur, Paris (3).
In humans, this virus is responsible for limited skin lesions, more frequently
in immunocompromised patients. Mainly farmers and butchers are affected.
Pseudocowpox virus is easily differentiated from orthopoxviruses such
as vaccinia virus by the virus's peculiar form on transmission electron
microscopy scan, but polymerase chain reaction is probably the best detection
method (4). In fact, many other more hazardous viruses
may be found in the oldest stocks of smallpox vaccine and deserve more
attention than previously considered.
References
- Murphy FA, Osburn BI. Adventitious
agents in smallpox vaccine in strategic national stockpile. Emerg
Infect Dis. 2005;11:1086–9.
- Arness MK, Eckart RE, Love SS, Atwood JE, Wells TS, Engler RJ, et
al. Myopericarditis
following smallpox vaccination. Am J Epidemiol. 2004;160:642–51.
- Pournaki R, Vieuchange J, Lépine P, Fasquelle R. Isolement d'un virus
distinct du virus vaccinal au cours de passages d'une lymphe vaccinale
de génisse. Ann Inst Pasteur. 1964;107:173–83.
- Inoshima Y, Morooka A, Sentsui H. Detection
and diagnosis of parapoxvirus by the polymerase chain reaction.
J Virol Methods. 2000;84:201–8.
Suggested citation
for this article:
Chastel C. Adventitious
viruses and smallpox vaccine [letter].Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the
Internet]. 2005 Nov [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol11no11/05-1031.htm
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