London, Jan. 14 (AP)--
Thousands of Britons were vaccinated at special clinics in the north of England today as doctors and nurses struggled to stop smallpox from spreading.
Police were hard-pressed to disentangle traffic jams and control queues outside one clinic in the Yorkshire industrial centre of Bradford--focal point of the smallpox scare.
Medical authorities said five deaths have been confirmed in England so far, and suspect cases are under observation In hospitals. All except one of the fatalities have been in the industrial north.
A man died tonight in a hospital at Otley, nine miles from Bradford, and doctors said he displayed smallpox symptoms. In Leeds, near Bradford, a two-year-old child suspected of having small pox was taken to hospital.
Although small-scale at present, the outbreak alarmed health officials all over Britain. It is believed to have originated with two Pakistani immigrants who entered the country in December and were in contact with hundreds of people before their smallpox symptoms emerged.
Since then smallpox has largely lost its old terror--and some health experts contend that Britain has become under-vaccinated as a result of public indifference.
One estimate is that only half the U.K. population is protected.
One of the latest suspect cases admitted to hospital near Leeds was Dr. James Ainley, a pathologist who carried out postmortem examination on child who died of smallpox there a few days ago.