Vaccination scar

[Soup]

Like most people my age, I have a scar on my left shoulder from when I was vaccinated (for polio?) as a child. All the other scars from my childhood cuts and scrapes have long since faded, so why is it that this scar remains?

[tomndebb]

I'm pretty sure that that was for smallpox.

At the vaccination point, you (we) developed a minor rash related to the pox and it scarred the skin. Polio and other vaccines were injected below the skin with a needle. I think that the smallpox vaccine was administered differently. (Having received mine at a rather young age, I don't remember the procedure, but I remember parents of new-born kids talking about it.)

[Chas.E]

Minor rash? No, you get a crusty, oozing pustule, just like real smallpox, except you just get the ONE pustule. Just be glad you didn't get REAL smallpox, it causes massive scars all over your body. Like THIS:

http://web20.mindlink.net/stolo/images/sp001.jpg

WARNING: graphic (but not horrible) photo. There were far worse photos on this site, this is about the least gross one I could find that illustrates my point.

FYI, Smallpox vaccine is administered by a scratch of a needle containing the smallpox vaccine, it is not really an injection, just a scratch. Polio vaccine is usually administered orally.

[Soup]

I vaguely remember my shoulder being scraped, not injected, when I received this vaccination. Sounds like what you described Chas.
These days, kids don't get vaccinated the same way, do they? Is there an oral vaccine for smallpox now?

[Lsura]

I'm pretty sure there is an oral vaccination now. When did they stop using the scar-causing vaccination? I think that my oldest brother has such a scar-he was born in January 1968, but I know I don't have one(1973) and I'm pretty sure my other older brother doesn't have one(1970).

[Hanna]

I have noticed that some people have large scars from the smallpox vaccine, and some are tiny. My sister (1969) has a huge upraised scar, and I (1965) have to look very hard to find mine.

[Johnny L.A.]

I've wondered about this. I "know" I was vaccinated, as I went to a public school in a middle-class neighbourhood and I remember shots being important when I was a kid. But I don't have a scar that I can see.

[Patty O'Furniture]

This mark looks different on different people. Mine has faded quite a bit and looks like a very faint discolored bruise. I have seen other people who still have a serious scar. On some people, the scar seems to be on their thigh... not sure why.

I remember the "injection" being something like the pins on a vacuum tube- a circle of 8 or 10 pins that they mashed into my arm. IIRC, it was disturbingly painful.

[Jetassisted]

I was vaccinated in the late 50s. The Doc took something small and annoying and jammed it into my shoulder and it was over before I could decide if I should scream or not. Within days, I developed a nasty looking scab. Shortly after, it fell off to leave a science-fiction like scar that I admired for decades. One day, and not all that long ago, I suddenly realized that it was gone.

I suppose most of them do go away with time.

[Chas.E]

Originally posted by Lsura
I'm pretty sure there is an oral vaccination now. When did they stop using the scar-causing vaccination? I think that my oldest brother has such a scar-he was born in January 1968, but I know I don't have one(1973) and I'm pretty sure my other older brother doesn't have one(1970).

No, there is no oral vaccine for smallpox.

From what I read on the web, smallpox vaccinations were stopped around 1970, since smallpox was considered to be completely eradicated. No sense in vaccinating people against a disease that no longer exists.

[Lsura]

Originally posted by Chas.E
From what I read on the web, smallpox vaccinations were stopped around 1970, since smallpox was considered to be completely eradicated. [/B]

That would explain why I don't have one, wouldn't it? ;)

Of course, it could just be a plot of the illuminati to eradicate us, eh?


don't mind me, I'm in a wierd mood. :p

[chique]

Originally posted by Chas.E
Originally posted by Lsura
I'm pretty sure there is an oral vaccination now. When did they stop using the scar-causing vaccination? I think that my oldest brother has such a scar-he was born in January 1968, but I know I don't have one(1973) and I'm pretty sure my other older brother doesn't have one(1970).

No, there is no oral vaccine for smallpox.

From what I read on the web, smallpox vaccinations were stopped around 1970, since smallpox was considered to be completely eradicated. No sense in vaccinating people against a disease that no longer exists.


1) If you go to bootcamp you'll get a smallpox vaccination.

2) I once asked a military doctor why some people had a huge scar and I didn't have one at all. He showed me that I did have a scar - several of them, in fact; 6 or 8 tiny little holes. He told me the cause of the large scars is movement - that is, if you moved just a little bit while the vaccination was being given chances are you'll get the large scar.

[elbows]

Smallpox has indeed been eradicated. The World Health Organization declared the vaccine contra-indicated in the 70's.

You contract this by exposure to someone affected. The last case was in Chad, I believe. If you travel there you must demonstrate you have been vaccinated or they'll do it.

Eradicating this illness is one of our greatest achievements, in my opinion.

I does still exist, frozen in two locations, Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Russia in a similar site.

[Why A Duck]

Dont you people watch the X-files?

The smallpox scar was obviously a governemnt plot to collect DNA samples, implant microschips, and develop mind control techniques in conjunction with aliens.***

Sheesh, you young people, where do you get your crazy stories?






*** the above was sarcasm, most will realize this, those who don't should get back on their medication

[handy]

I don't know why they put that shot on the arm, its sure ugly. They could have put it under the arm, which I think they did for women.

[screech-owl]

Nope, handy, mine was on the upper arm, just about 2 inches below the shoulder. Under the arm would have been scarier.

In first grade (late 60s/early 70s), we had two different shots: one was a TB test (the injector was a small button with a short knobby handle, and several (4 or 6) sharp pins). One and two days later, we all had to traipse back to the nurse's office to be checked for skin irritation - mine was irritated because I kept scratching it - damned thing hurt like hell!

The second (for measles and other stuff) was a larger 'gun' (looked like the thingy the doctor checked your ears with), connected to a long hose (must have been a tank full of vaccine, and the needle was replaced between each shot. That is the one that left the nasty looking scar which has finally faded and smoothed out.

Finally, I can wear sleeveless outfiuts without feeling like a freak.

[Yeah]

"Nope, handy, mine was on the upper arm, just about 2 inches below the shoulder. Under the arm would have been scarier."
The traditional place was on the outer, upper arm. But some mothers chose to have their female children vaccinated at sites where they believed the scare would be less visible (e.g., the inner thigh.)

"In first grade (late 60s/early 70s), we had two different shots: one was a TB test (the injector was a small button with a short knobby handle, and several (4 or 6) sharp pins). One and two days later, we all had to traipse back to the nurse's office to be checked for skin irritation - mine was irritated because I kept scratching it - damned thing hurt like hell!" You are describing the Tine test for reactivity to tuberculosis bacteria. It is inferior to the Mantoux test for TB in which a small amount of material is injected into the top layers of the skin. With both tests, what you look for is a reaction. People who have a big reaction are likely to have been exposed to TB and possibly to have TB. People with no reaction are unlikely to have been exposed to TB (unless, of course, they have a immune deficiency in which case the test doesn't help much).

"The second (for measles and other stuff) was a larger 'gun' (looked like the thingy the doctor checked your ears with), connected to a long hose (must have been a tank full of vaccine, and the needle was replaced between each shot. That is the one that left the nasty looking scar which has finally faded and smoothed out." You are describing an air gun for administering vaccines. The tube is attached to a tank full pressurized air, not vaccine. There is no needle. If you were scarred by an such a vaccination, them something went seriously wrong.

[Jophiel]

It does still exist, frozen in two locations, Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Russia in a similar site. It was my understanding that the United States and Russia reached an agreement to destroy the remaining samples and this has already been carried out. I remember readding about it for ages and then one day hearing that the U.S. had destroyed theirs, but I'm only assuming that Russia followed suit. In any event, it becomes a game of "Did they destroy all of their sample?" The cynic in me says of course not, and I almost think it'd be stupid of them to do so.

[Chas.E]

hmm.. I wonder when they started giving measles vaccinations. I don't think I had one, I couldn't have, because I got the measles when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I went back to college at age 38 and they wouldn't admit me until I showed proof of measles vaccination. I told them I certainly would NOT get a vaccination, I had the measles and that confers lifelong immunity. They didn't believe me, so I had to track down my childhood doctor (a relative, who had long since retired from his General Practice) and he wrote me a note certifying that I had the measles and did not need another shot. Jeez, I felt like a 6 year old kid bringing a note to the principal.
But in the close conditions of a college, measles is probably the least of your worries. One day I was at the student union in a line at the coffee shop, and the person in front of me said "my roommate got rushed to the hospital with bacterial meningitis!" I immediately exited the line and went somewhere else to get my coffee.

[dragonlady]

My smallpox injection site was on my thigh. My mother remembers it clearly. Both my brothers,too. Can't find any evidence, however. I'm not sure when they stopped giving it, my son is 20 didn't get one.
For the record, polio has been oral for many years, I got mine before 1964 on a sugar cube at the high school. Red measels is usually given in combination with mumps and rubella (German measels).

[Yeah]

dragonlady: "For the record, polio has been oral for many years.."

The oral Sabin vaccine (OPV) did not entirely displace the injectable Salk vaccine (IPV). They each had distinct advantages and disadvantages, with OPV being better for most purposes in the U.S. until recently. Now, with a high level of polio vaccine coverage in the United States and almost no "wild" cases of polio in the Americas, the injectable vacine (IPV) is no longer routinely recommended for the first two doses. Here is the recommendation from National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (http://www.cdc.gov/nip):

"Most children should get 4 doses of polio vaccine at
these ages:
2 months . . . . . . . . . . IPV
4 months . . . . . . . . . . IPV
12-18 months . . . . . . . . OPV or IPV
4-6 years . . . . . . . . . .OPV or IPV"

[Why A Duck]

Originally posted by Yeah
... Now, with a high level of polio vaccine coverage in the United States and almost no "wild" cases of polio in the Americas, the injectable vacine (IPV) is no longer routinely recommended for the first two doses. Here is the recommendation from National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (http://www.cdc.gov/nip):

"Most children should get 4 doses of polio vaccine at
these ages:
2 months . . . . . . . . . . IPV
4 months . . . . . . . . . . IPV
12-18 months . . . . . . . . OPV or IPV
4-6 years . . . . . . . . . .OPV or IPV"

Yeah, did you mean oral in the post above? The schedule you list jibes with what our pediatrician told us. Our 6 month old has had two IPVs so far. One of the reasons mentioned for going back to IPV vs. OPV was that the oral version was more suceptible to actually causing polio in a minutely small percentage of kids.

[Yeah]

pcubed and the quote from the CDC are correct.

When I wrote "the injectable vacine (IPV) is no longer routinely recommended..." I meant "the oral vaccine (OPV) is no longer routinely recommended..."