Mass vaccination may not be necessary to contain smallpox in the event of a biowarfare attack, scientists said on Wednesday. Instead, they suggested that spotting an outbreak early and vaccinating affected individuals and front-line workers will be enough to ensure safety. “Our results suggest that outbreaks can be contained by a strategy of targeted vaccination combined with early detection without resorting to mass vaccination of a population,” Dr Stephen Eubank, of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said in a report in the science journal Nature. Smallpox is a serious and sometimes fatal infectious disease that was eradicated decades ago after a successful worldwide vaccination program. Full Story