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In late 2002, smallpox vaccination was reinstated temporarily for military personnel (590,400 doses); in early 2003, the program was expanded to include civilians at high risk (64,600 doses, mostly for health care and emergency service workers). In two studies, researchers have assessed adverse events (AEs) that were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and were associated temporally with smallpox vaccination.
In the first study, 37,901 vaccinated civilians were assessed from January through October 2003. A total of 822 AEs were documented, of which 590 were reported within 14 days of vaccination and reasonably could be attributed to vaccination; 100 of these were serious: 85 resulted in hospitalization (including 21 cases …