What is Alaska doing to protect its citizens against smallpox as an agent for bioterrorism?
All of the states are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to develop state-specific smallpox plans. Alaska’s smallpox plan will address the unique challenges of our state. The Alaska smallpox plan includes steps to: • Vaccinate Smallpox Public Health Response Teams and Smallpox Health Care Response Teams that will give the state the capacity to rapidly provide mass vaccination and to care for possible smallpox patients. • Request and receive smallpox vaccine to rapidly vaccinate all people in Alaska within 10 days or less. The Alaska Division of Public Health has been working closely with many partners during the development of these plans. • What will the Alaska smallpox teams do and who will staff them? Members of Smallpox Public Health Response Teams will investigate and evaluate any patient suspected of having smallpox. These teams will also initiate infection control measures in the community and the state, should smallpox be confirmed. The members of these tea
