DOD expands vaccination eligibility list

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Scott Elliott
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  Adult family members of some servicemembers have joined the list of those eligible to receive smallpox and anthrax vaccinations.

According to Department of Defense officials, the voluntary vaccinations are available in designated higher-threat areas, including State Department missions. Eligible people include adult military family members, all DOD appropriated and nonappropriated fund employees and their adult family members, as well as DOD contractor employees assigned to or living in the areas.

Contractor employees must receive authorization from their employers before vaccination, and contractor-employee family members are not eligible, the officials said.

Existing policies remain in effect for mandatory vaccination of military members, emergency essential civil service employees and mission essential contractors assigned to higher-threat areas, said Lt. Col. Gwendolyn Hall, chief of the counter proliferation policy branch in the national security policy division at the Pentagon.

“The (voluntary) vaccines will be administered in accordance with current policy,” Hall said. “The only difference is volunteers will have to sign a vaccine acknowledgement form prior to receiving the vaccine.”

All who receive the vaccines undergo a thorough education and pre-screening program. During the screening, health-care professionals are available to answer questions about the vaccine and any possible adverse reactions, including recent media reports of a possible correlation between the smallpox vaccine and heart trouble.

According to Maj. (Dr.) Mylene Huynh, service officials have updated the policy regarding vaccine exemptions. Huynh is deputy of the operational prevention division for the Air Force Medical Operations Agency at Bolling Air Force Base, D.C.,

“It’s not known whether smallpox vaccination is a causal or a coincidental association with heart attack,” she said.

Still, Huynh said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a precautionary recommendation, adopted by the DOD and Air Force, that people with certain risk factors not receive the vaccination.

“People with conditions such as prior heart attack, angina, congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, stroke or other cardiac conditions currently being evaluated by a physician are exempt from smallpox vaccination,” she said.

In addition, people with three or more cardiac risk factors are exempt from vaccination, she said. Those conditions include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, a family history of heart disease and current cigarette smokers.