Breastfed Baby Exposed to Smallpox Vaccine Virus
Thu February 12, 2004 06:01 PM ET

By Paul Simao
ATLANTA (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier's wife who was accidentally exposed to
the live virus in the smallpox vaccine likely passed it on to her baby
through breast-feeding, according to military authorities.

The incident, which occurred in May 2003 as the U.S. military was
inoculating hundreds of thousands of soldiers against smallpox, is the
first documented case of third-hand transmission of vaccinia virus through
breast-feeding.

Vaccinia is not smallpox, but a pox-like virus related to the rare and
deadly virus. Cases of accidental transmission are rare, usually occurring
through direct contact with a vaccinated person's unhealed vaccination
site.

In a report released on Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, a team of Army doctors reported that the unidentified
mother developed lesions near her nipples about a week after her husband
was vaccinated.

Although the husband had a "major reaction" to the jab, the couple had
continued to sleep together and the wife had not stopped breast-feeding
their baby. About two weeks later, lesions appeared on the infant's face
and tongue.

Lab tests confirmed that mother and daughter had been exposed to vaccinia.
Neither had been vaccinated for smallpox.

Military officials are not exactly sure how the wife, who had handled
laundry possibly contaminated with vaccinia, was infected. They are,
however, fairly certain that the baby got the virus through breast-
feeding .

The report urged breast-feeding mothers living with people who have been
vaccinated against smallpox to be aware of the possibility of exposure to
vaccinia and take care not to spread it to their infants.

The Department of Defense, which has confirmed 18 cases of inadvertent
vaccinia transmission since December 2002, has been advising vaccinated
persons to cover up their vaccination sites, wash their hands regularly and
limit contact with infants.

The United States ended routine vaccinations for smallpox in 1972, but
decided in 2002 to resume them for soldiers and some health-care workers as
fears grew that the virus could be used as a weapon by radical groups or
countries like Iraq.

Smallpox kills about 30 percent of its victims and scars the remainder for
life.

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