Well, well, what do we have here? Accessed today April 2, 2013 with underlines added.
“CAUTION: This document was published by CDC in 1984 to record the experience and lessons learned from applying epidemiologic principles to humanitarian relief efforts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The goal was to preserve CDC’s institutional memory for future generations of CDC responders to natural and manmade disasters. Although the epidemiologic techniques and general principles remain valid, the usage described of certain drugs, vaccines, and other specific health-related strategies may be obsolete. For example, consult more recent guidelines for drug-resistant malaria, antibiotic usage, presumptive treatments, and vaccination technologies (auto-disable syringes are now preferred; multi-use-nozzle jet injectors are discouraged).”
Example of what NOT to do today:
The “Pedijet” was used (page 52) to inject 9,010 children with doses of measles vaccine within one week.
Chapter 26 Vaccination Programs for Refugees (Page 138):
“Miscellaneous: A jet injector and 50-dose vaccine vials must be available if a large number of children are to be vaccinated in a short period of time.”
We don’t know how syringes were sterilized or how the blood bank conducted activities in these crowded refugee camps. But at last, someone at the CDC is apparently serious about preventing the transmission of pathogens via unsafe vaccination techniques like the use of jet injectors.
The spread of infectious diseases was the unintended consequence of mass vaccination campaigns meant to protect people in the past and that’s why the caution language is front and center before the download link to the pdf. is provided.
But CDC, the public has a right to know the details.
http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tsunamis/pdf/emergency-refugee-health-care-1984.pdf