The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7224 p702
16 November 2002

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Science (www.sciencemag.org)

Targeted smallpox vaccinations

Vaccinating only those people who have been in close contact with smallpox-infected individuals could be as effective as population-wide vaccination, but only if existing immunity is sufficiently high.

Researchers suggest in this week's issue of Science that existing population immunity could derive from vaccines received before routine smallpox vaccination was stopped.