I had smallpox vaccinations twice – once as a kid and once as a young adult. Neither vaccination left any trace of a scar. Does this mean that I might be naturally immune?
This question has been answered on this board before. Search General Questions under Smallpox.
yeah, I tried to find the answer to the query in the old threads. The question was (paraphrased) “Does lack of scarring after smallpox immunization indicate natural immunity?” I didn’t see this question addressed.
So I will address it here. No, it doesn’t mean you have natural immunity. It’s more probable that either you just didn’t get a scar while you had a good antibody response, or you didn’t develop an antibody reaction to the inoculation, in which case you have no immunity.
QtM, MD
I recall my mother telling me that she had a false immunization certificate for small pox issued by a doctor in Holland for me so we could emigrate to Canada when I was 6 weeks old. Apparently the doctor thought I was to young. Several years later my mother approached our family doctor to get me a vaccination. The doctor wondered how come I didn’t have one before I entered the country. "Oh it didn’t take " she lied. Now I understand how she could have gotten away with the lie. If I recall correctly I ended up with a major hole in my arm at the injection site. But I’ll be damned if I can find the scar now.