Lawton Hospital Locked Down

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) -- A Lawton hospital was locked down for more than an hour overnight after a child came to the emergency room with a rash that doctor's couldn't immediately identify and feared

Wednesday, August 8th 2007, 7:49 am

By: News On 6

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) -- A Lawton hospital was locked down for more than an hour overnight after a child came to the emergency room with a rash that doctor's couldn't immediately identify and feared could be smallpox.

Tests later determined the child does not have smallpox and the lockdown at Southwestern Medical Center was lifted.

Hospital chief of staff Dr. Penny Hoover says samples taken from the child and photos of the rash were sent to the state Health Department and to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Hoover says the rash is now believed to be either a cowpox virus, an unusual form of chicken pox or a virus.

Hoover says the emergency room doctor was concerned because the child was recently in contact with an active duty service member who was recently immunized for smallpox and had just returned from overseas.