On Friday, December 13, 2002, President George W. Bush announced a voluntary smallpox vaccination program that will target approximately 10,000 health care workers in New York City. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) has asked all acute care hospitals in the city to identify the staff who would be interested in serving on the hospital’s smallpox response team. The MediSys Health Network is actively participating in this initiative, and has recently sent letters to employees that are potential members of this team. Our vaccination clinics will begin in May.

These smallpox response teams will care for the first suspected of confirmed patients if a smallpox outbreak occurred and until other hospital workers could be vaccinated. As we want to be sure to protect those staff who volunteer to serve on these teams, we will be offering smallpox vaccine to potential volunteers as long as they, or their close contacts, do not have any of the medical conditions that put them at higher risk for complications from the smallpox vaccine.