Topeka ? Voluntary smallpox vaccinations will be offered to about 4,400 health care workers in Kansas beginning in early February, the state Department of Health and Environment has announced.

Although precise locations are being kept secret for security reasons, the department said Thursday that Topeka, Parsons and Kansas City, Kan., would be the first sites for the inoculations, about Feb. 10.

Vaccination clinics in Overland Park and Wichita will open about a week later, with other clinics opening in Garden City, Great Bend and McPherson the following week, the department said.

Preparations for the inoculations are outlined in the department’s Kansas Phase One Smallpox Vaccination Plan. Under orders from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all states have created plans for inoculating medical teams that would respond to a smallpox outbreak.

President Bush last month called for the vaccinations for a limited number of medical teams and some members of the military. Vaccinations for the general public, Bush said, are not necessary at this time.

The Kansas plan calls for vaccinating 43 teams of health care workers.

“We are confident we can carry out the program,” said Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for the Health and Environment Department. “We have been working with local health departments and the federal government.”

Smallpox, a highly contagious disease that kills as many as 30 percent of its victims, was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. But some federal officials fear that terrorists might possess samples of the virus.

Routine immunization for smallpox ended in 1972 in the United States. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta began training hundreds of health officials from throughout the country to learn how to safely administer the smallpox vaccine.

Smallpox vaccinations are not without risk.

For every 1 million people who take the shot, about 1,000 will experience side effects such as a rash or sores. Between 14 and 52 people will have reactions such as serious skin rashes, skin infections or brain inflammation, and one or two people may die from reactions to the vaccine, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Kansas plan states that health care workers getting the vaccine will be monitored closely for adverse effects.

The plan also emphasizes that vaccinations are voluntary.

“At this time, we have no expectations that the vaccinations will be mandatory,” the plan said. “It is a choice to be made by individuals offered the vaccine.”

However, the plan goes on to point out that quarantines and isolation might be necessary if a smallpox outbreak occurred.

“An intentional release of smallpox virus is very unlikely,” the plan said, “but because the potential consequences of such a release are so great, the public health system must be prepared.”