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Volunteers from the health care fields are being sought by the Indiana State Department of Health and the Local Emergency Planning Committee.
Nurses, dentists, physician assistants, paramedics and advanced EMTs who volunteer will be trained to be smallpox vaccinators. Anyone who wants to provide their services should visit the ISDH Web site at www.in.gov/isdh/bioterrorism/volunteer.htm and fill out the form on the site, then submit it via fax (267-8417) or e-mail (shots@kconline.com) to the Kosciusko County Health Department.
Julie Bowers, LEPC chairwoman, said under the state's original plan, phase one of Indiana's response to potential bioterrorism threats would include vaccinating and training of volunteers from the health care profession so they can later vaccinate others if the need should arise. Phase two would include vaccinating First Responders. However, statewide, only 687 people were vaccinated during phase I and not all of those are eligible to vaccinate others. In Kosciusko County, there were 30 persons who went to St. Joseph County for the vaccinations, but not all of those are eligible to vaccinate others.
There were at least a couple reasons why the volunteers were fewer in number than hoped, Bowers said. First, people were uncertain about getting vaccinated and how that may affect their workman's compensation if they got ill from the vaccination. Second, some likely were concerned how the vaccination would affect children in their household.
To get more volunteers, the state decided that instead of requiring vaccinators to get vaccinated themselves, they only will be trained on the procedure as part of phase two. If the need should arise where all of Kosciusko County needs to be immunized (phase three), the vaccinators then will be vaccinated first. But in such a scenario, Bowers said, people wouldn't be worried about workers' compensation or any other issue.
"They wouldn't have to receive the vaccine now," she said.
Bowers stressed that the probability of the need to implement phase three is only 1 to 2 percent. There currently is no knowledge of any smallpox threat.
Of the 687 health workers who were vaccinated under phase one, Bowers said, there were virtually no side effects, though it was predicted there would be some. The fear of side effects was overrated, she said, though the persons who were vaccinated were screened first. She said it is prudent for the state to be cautious since it has been the first time the vaccination has been used since the late 1960s. The side effect possibilities were unknown and the immune systems of people today are weaker because of overuse of antibiotics.
For phase two, Bowers said, they hope to have 100 volunteers from within the county. The state wants to have 50 volunteers per 100,000 population, but the county wants to have more than that so the volunteers won't have to work around the clock and they can rotate the volunteers. She said they hope to have the volunteers prior to March 31 so training can begin that week.
"I'm needing 60 additional (volunteers) to come from the county," Bowers said. "I've been impressed with the volunteerism of our county" as the 30 who volunteered in this county was a "stronger" number than other counties in the state. She said that speaks well for the character of the people.
Training will be held at Kosciusko Community Hospital so volunteers don't have to travel out of the county. It will include watching a video, learning the technique and practicing the technique. She said even today's nurses mostly don't know how to use the smallpox vaccination technique since it hasn't been used in several decades. Vaccination site care also will be emphasized in the training.
There are three main reasons that a person should not be vaccinated: eczema, immune deficiency or if a woman is pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant. Previously, Bowers said, people with small children in the home were ruled out too but that ban has been lifted as "it is not seen as the risk it once was."
