Exemption from Vaccination: Some people should not get smallpox vaccine, except under emergency situations.
If you have clinical questions related to vaccination, please contact the DoD Vaccine Clinical Call Center at 1-866-210-6469.
In the event of a smallpox outbreak, even people with the exemptions listed below should get smallpox vaccination if they were exposed to someone contagious with smallpox.
People whose immune system is not working fully (due to disease, medication, or radiation), such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, transplant, immune deficiency.
People diagnosed with eczema or atopic dermatitis, now or earlier in life.
People with current skin conditions, such as burns, impetigo, contact dermatitis, chickenpox, shingles, psoriasis, or uncontrolled acne, until the condition clears up.
Pregnant women.
People with a household contact who meets any of the conditions above.
People with serious heart or vessel conditions (such as angina, heart attack, artery disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, other cardiac problem).
People with 3 cardiac risk factors (smoking, high blood pressure or cholesterol, diabetes, family history).
People taking steroid eye drops or ointment.
Breastfeeding mothers.
Anyone who had problems after previous doses or is allergic to the vaccine or any component.
Smallpox Vaccine:
Smallpox vaccine contains live vaccinia viruses, which produce protection against smallpox. The vaccine was prepared on the skin of calves. The calves’ lymph was purified, concentrated, freeze-dried, and stored in a freezer until recently.
This same vaccine has been administered to many millions of Americans, including Service Members during World War I, up until the 1980's.
FDA recently licensed a limited supply of smallpox vaccine made by Wyeth Laboratories, called Dryvax®. The vaccine had been stored in a freezer since the late 1970s. Recent tests show that Dryvax® has remained potent. It passed all tests required by the FDA.
If a smallpox outbreak occurs, the Defense Department may run out of FDA-licensed smallpox vaccine. In that case, the FDA will allow the DoD to use previously licensed smallpox vaccine, but it must be called “investigational” and the DoD must tell you how it differs from licensed vaccine.
There is one main difference between licensed and investigational smallpox vaccines: Investigational smallpox vaccine has five times more liquid than usual mixed with it, to help make the vaccine available to more people. We call this a 1:5 (one-to-five) dilution, because one dose of diluted vaccine would contain only 20% as much vaccinia virus as full-strength vaccine.
Despite these differences, the investigational vaccine has passed all tests required by the FDA.
DoD will be using the only FDA-licensed smallpox vaccine in its current, pre-outbreak smallpox vaccination program.
