Since I was born after 1972 (1977 to be exact) I did not get a smallpox vaccine at birth. Well, since it is only a matter of time before some religious nutcase starts spreading smallpox (or ebola, anthrax, tularemia, plague, etc.), I’d really like to get a smallpox vaccine.
How do I go about getting one? Can I just ask my doctor - will he say “sure, it’ll be $X” and give me one?
As a side note, I worked in a hospital the summer after 8th grade. I remember they gave me some vaccine that they don’t give to “the gereral public.” It was required - to work in a hospital you had to have that vaccine. I really can’t remember what vaccine it was! Could it have been for smallpox? Is it routine to vaccinate all hospital employees for smallpox? Maybe I already have a smallpox vaccine.
If so - does it last for life? Or do you need booster shots every now and then? Thanks for any info!
I’m not sure if smallpox vaccine is readily available, at present, but there are efforts underway to correct that. (They should have a plentiful supply somewhere around 2003 or so.) In any case, many people have a natural immunity to smallpox, even without the vaccine. You could always do what helped lead to the discovery of the smallpox vaccine: catch a case of cowpox. Its not fatal to humans, and does make you immune to smallpox.
As for the vaccine you were given in the hospital, it was most likely some kind of hepatitis vaccine and not smallpox.
In any case, I think you’re worried about nothing. The Master Speaks on this subject. Notice that the column dates from December of last year, so its pretty current.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5010a1.htm -Highly technical, but it gives good information about the disease and the vaccine. It tells us that during the ‘smallpox era’, overall mortality rates were approximately 30%. Not a pleasant statistic. The vaccination, known under the trade name Dryvax®, is not made from smallpox virus, and will also protect you against cowpox and something known as monkeypox, a nonvariola Orthopoxvirus more virulent than smallpox. On the subject of revaccination, it has this to say:
So I guess someone’s still working with Orthopoxviruses, if not smallpox in specific.
http://www.who.int/disease-outbreak-news/n2000/june/20june2000.html -Some general information about the vaccine from the WHO. Apparently prompted by an unfortunate incident where Russian childred discovered, played with, and got sick from discarded ampoules of smallpox vaccine.
Smallpox vaccine failure quotes -Some quotes about what an abysmal failure the smallpox vaccine was the first time around. I guess that’s why it’s so prevalent now.
Thanks for the info. I might add that after reading “Biohazard” by Ken Alibek, I firmly believe it is only a matter of time before terrorists (aka religious wackos) use biological weapons on the USA. It will happen sooner rather than later.
If anyone is unsure whether they’ve ever been vaccinated for smallpox… the vaccination leaves a distinctive scar. It’s round, usually has several tiny pits in it, and about the size of a dime. How obvious it is varies due to the healing ability of the person in question, but a scar is always produced. It’s usually on the upper arm, towards the back.
Ask anyone over the age of 32-34 to show you theirs.
Heh. I was once in a bar and a woman coming in didn’t have ID.
She rolled up her sleeve and showed it to the bartender, confident that it would prove that she was a good 10 years past 21.
The bartender, all of about 21 years and five minutes old, didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. Pity, I thought it would have been great if they had let her stay.
Your Doc will be happy to provide it for you on request, even though he’ll probably have to just order it in from the local pharmacy. I’ve had the vaccination – oh so many moons ago when I was going into first grade. back then all kids were vaccinated against smallpox, typhoid fever, diphtheria, tetanus, and had to take the polio serum. My smallpox vaccination raised a cool welt and scab that I just wanted to pick at but my Mom wouldn’t let me. It fell off after a time leaving a cool scar that looked like some alien sucker worm had fastened itself to my arm with a thousand tiny teeth.
The scar is gone now. I realized that one day months ago when friends and I were talking about vaccinating school kids for smallpox and I looked to see if my scar was still there. POOF! Gone, lo these many years.
I was disappointed.
I don’t think it will cost you much to get the serum and it is applied in a tiny plastic glue tube top looking thingie with about 4 sharp prongs that just barely penetrate the skin. A stab, maybe a slight twist, a tiny sting and you’re done.
I had the old fashioned smallpox vaccination around the age of 3, left a scar, etc. Note to UniversalGuy: and it is almost completely gone. I hadn’t noticed 'til I read your post!
I got the newer kind in the early 70’s (to help my immune system against its relatives). Just a regular shot, no scab or scar.
During the eradication days, the UN folk used the pneumatic types which also did not leave a scar.
So, that’s what weird spot on my arm has been all these years! It’s about 4" inches below my shoulder on my left arm. Looks like four little indentations.
There is talk by the CDC of making smallpox vaccine again. I doubt there are any stockpiles of it anywhere yet and no, your doctor can’t order it. The virus was eradicated in the wild in the early 70s, and no one is immunized now. Those of us who were have waning immunity at best and none at worst. They only reliably work for ten years. The fear, As Ken Alibek and Richard Preston have pointed out, there is some evidence that when the USSR broke up, Russian biowarfare experts dispersed around the world, possibly taking vials of smallpox with them. It’s a scary thought, and one that is apparently being taking seriously by the government. There would be no other reason to resume producing the vaccine.
I always wondered about the scar left behind, as I’m not too familiar with the mechanics of the smallpox vaccine application. My guess is
~ The scar’s there because the application is more superficial than a needle.
~ This technique is used because it is cheaper and quicker on the kiddies, and less dangerous in case of movement.
~ It’s also used because of the added advantage that it’s easy to identify those who have already had the vaccine.
Seems like adequate justification for pretty minor disfigurement. Am I wrong on any of these counts?
Wouldn’t any group contemplating spreading smallpox again be running a significant risk that it would just spread back to them and inflict the same amount of damage on them and their potential allies?
Wouldn’t any group contemplating crashing a plane be running a significant risk that it would just spread back to them and inflict the same amount of damage on them?
No, I know they’re not quite the same, because the smallpox could infect the believers back in Afghanistan. But who knows what really goes through these people’s minds?
First off smallpox doesn’t kill everyone.
Secondly, it affects more densely populated areas much more than rural ones. So its effect on the Great Satan, not just in population, but also economically, could be much more than the middle east. And of course cities are home to vile corruption and degeneracy, while the desert nomads and mountain dwellers, presumably the purer and truer believers, would be less impacted.
That’s the case I’d make if I were their defense attorney before God. Fully expecting conviction and damnation for my clients.
I think ya are. IIRC, the applicator was used because the vaccine was made up of different components which couldn’t be mixed together before injecting. In any case, not everyone who got one ended up with a scar. I, for example, don’t have one and I distinctly remember getting the vaccine. Also many of the people I went to school with didn’t have a scar from it either. I remember in health class one day when we were discussing small pox vaccines and no one in class had a scar, but all of us being born in the late 60s had been vaccinated.
And BobT, your right. Read the link to Unca Cecil’s column that I provided.
Born in 1969, my parents told me I’d had the smallpox vaccination. When I went into the Army in Nov. 1987, they were still doing live-virus smallpox vaccinations (beforehand, we recruits were shown some photos on what happened if you had a bad reaction which we were given to understand was likely if you had AIDS).
I’ve never had a scar (remember my childhood friends’ scars, though) and I was the only one in my platoon to have absolutely no reaction to the vaccination evident when they came around to make sure nobody was covered with the pox a week or three after the fact. Perhaps I’m one of those naturally immune? While curious, I’d prefer never to have to find out for sure
I’ve noticed this quite a bit in the past few years (lots of bare arms on the naked beach ) but it’s on a lot of people in their twenties too-- and more women than men.
Is there any other shot or injection that leaves this marking? Looks like a cigar burn?
Barbarian - I have a round scar on my arm from a TB innoculation when I was about 5. My grandfather had TB, so we all had to have the shot after being around him. None of my classmates ever had it because they don’t give it out in school anymore.
The smallpox vaccine scar sounds different from the TB vaccine scar.
) but it’s on a lot of people in their twenties too-- and more women than men.