# Vaccinated for smallpox as a child, any good now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2010, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612 "2010-12-18T08:21:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WheatCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@WheatCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WheatCat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/21 "2014-02-08T21:57:57Z")
I have my original hard copy immunization record going back to 1950. There are frequent entries due to my father’s job-related overseas travel, including _seven_ for smallpox- in 1950, 1951, 1954, 1958, 1961, 1964 and 1968. I do not know why there were immunizations in consecutive years 1950-51; maybe the first one didn’t take. There has never been any prominent scarring, and there is no scarring now visible now. ---
**Author:** ![WheatCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@WheatCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WheatCat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/22 "2014-02-08T22:00:10Z")
> [@MDJR](#): > > A recent study (2006) concluded that the median duration of protection from primary vaccination ranged from 11.7 to 28.4 years. Vaccinated individuals appeared to be protected from severe disease with more than 50% probability even 50 years after successful primary vaccination. The study suggests that primary vaccination offered full protection for a few decades, with partial protection possibly lasting a lifetime. > > A/PubMed Sept 17,2006 Do you have a link to this study? Among other things I would like to know exactly what “partial protection” is. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/23 "2014-02-08T22:06:40Z")
Searching PubMed, I think [this is the one](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16804475). (Edit: And I wonder what on earth inspired someone to register for the board 4 years ago but never post, then re-emerge today and bump several old threads about vaccination.) ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/24 "2014-02-08T22:20:58Z")
This suggests that the answer to the question is an unqualified “we just don’t know:” [Public Health and National Security Planning: The Case for Voluntary Smallpox Vaccination](http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2002/12/public-health-and-national-security-planning). ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/25 "2014-02-08T22:35:11Z")
> [@WheatCat](#): > > Do you have a link to this study? > > Among other things I would like to know exactly what “partial protection” is. Google Scholar finds it: [Still Protected Against Smallpox?: Estimation of the Duration of Vaccine-Induced Immunity Against Smallpox](http://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2006/09000/Still_Protected_Against_Smallpox___Estimation_of.17.aspx) Be prepared for terms like Bivariate Poisson Sampling and Gompertz’s Law. Here’s a taste: > [@](#): > > Knowing the age-dependent incidence and proportion of severe manifestations among individuals with or without prior vaccination has helped to shed light on transmission dynamics of various diseases.20,21 If vaccine-induced protection is lost over time, vaccinated individuals would be infected at an older age than unvaccinated ones (Fig. 1). Binomial and Poisson sampling can be used when inclusion probabilities are known for each age class when these probabilities are assumed to be pairwise-independent. Bivariate Poisson distribution is used to allow for covariates, thus naturally extending the univariate Poisson setting.22 Even when demographic information and vaccination coverage are not known, the elevated age at infection among vaccinated individuals provides some information on the duration of protection. In other words, the numbers of cases observed according to age class and vaccination status can be regarded as the result of bivariate Poisson sampling with probabilities that depend on age at infection and time since vaccination. A subsequent binomial sampling process can reasonably be applied to the clinical classification of cases, yielding unconditional probabilities of mild disease by time. ---
**Author:** ![WheatCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@WheatCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WheatCat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/26 "2014-02-08T23:05:59Z")
Thanks everyone for the citations. I guess partial protection has to do with severity of symptoms. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/27 "2014-02-09T14:25:48Z")
[This](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/euhs-imf111003.php) is a pretty definitive “yes”. (And I personally know at least one person in the study whose vaccination is apparently still good. Which is why I knew what to Google for.) ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/28 "2014-02-09T15:41:01Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > The older vac scars are much bigger. My mother’s was pretty ugly, about an inch across; it was pre-1940, probably more like 1915-1920. Vaccinations of my generation, ca. 1950’s, cannot be seen without a magnifying glass. Hm. Mine’s about half-inch diameter, done in the early 50’s. Apparently it worked… ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/29 "2014-02-09T16:11:08Z")
Why didn’t they vaccinate people on a place less visible than the upper arm so that the scar would be less visible? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/30 "2014-02-09T16:14:23Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > My daughter is from the Philippines, born in 1995, and has a smallpox vaccination scar. Really? I thought smallpox vaccination was discontinued worldwide prior to that. Are you sure it isn’t a BCG vaccine mark? BTW, smallpox has NOT made a resurgence. Some people were vaxed after 9/11 because of the concern about bioterrorism, but honestly, it’s one of the worst agents to be used for that. By the time a person is contagious, they’re going to be covered in pock marks, and they’re also going to be so sick, they won’t want to leave the house anyway. IDK if it’s transmissible by contact other than person-to-person. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/31 "2014-02-09T16:15:38Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Why didn’t they vaccinate people on a place less visible than the upper arm so that the scar would be less visible? Actually, that’s why it was done that way, because many people were/are illiterate or don’t or can’t keep track of their immunization records. It was the first vaccine required for school attendance, and in this case, a “take” would be readily visible. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/32 "2014-02-09T16:18:28Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Go to a tattoo parlor and get your faded scar enhanced? 😉 > > Question: Why are smallpox vaccinations done differently than other kinds of immunization (commonly also called “vaccinations”)? Why isn’t it done by sticking a needle into you and squirting like other jabs are done? Because this was how the body created the immune response. Injecting it into a muscle, or sub-q for the MMR, or orally like the typhoid vaccine, doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/33 "2014-02-09T18:02:17Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > [This](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/euhs-imf111003.php) is a pretty definitive “yes”. I think the link indicates a “looks like it at lasts for at least decades” with regard to “Does smallpox vaccination ever wear off?”, but a “not sure (because we can’t actually test this)” with regard to “Does that do me any good against the resurgence of the disease in recent years?” [not that there’s been a resurgence, but let’s say bioterrorism release.] From the link: > [@](#): > > Our work has not shown that these people would be protected, because that cannot be directly tested, and this is an important point. But, our study does show that people maintain immune memory against smallpox for many decades, and hopefully those levels of immune memory would provide at least some amount of protection against smallpox." The paper, “Cutting edge: long-term B cell memory in humans after smallpox vaccination.”, can be found [here](http://www.jimmunol.org/content/171/10/4969.long). > [@](#): > > **Abstract** > > Memory B cells are a central component of humoral immunity, and yet little is known about their longevity in humans. Immune memory after smallpox vaccination (DryVax) is a valuable benchmark for understanding the longevity of B cell memory in the absence of re-exposure to Ag. In this study, we demonstrate that smallpox vaccine-specific memory B cells last for \>50 years in immunized individuals. Virus-specific memory B cells initially declined postimmunization, but then reached a plateau ∼10-fold lower than peak and were stably maintained for \>50 years after vaccination at a frequency of ∼0.1% of total circulating IgG+ B cells. These persisting memory B cells were functional and able to mount a robust anamnestic Ab response upon revaccination. Additionally, virus-specific CD4+ T cells were detected decades after vaccination. These data show that immunological memory to DryVax vaccine is long-lived and may contribute to protection against smallpox. ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/34 "2014-02-10T16:50:58Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Why didn’t they vaccinate people on a place less visible than the upper arm so that the scar would be less visible? Sometimes they did. My scar is on my ankle. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612/35 "2014-02-10T17:24:31Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Any thoughts on whether those of us previously vaccinated for Small Pox would have a lower risk of _complications_ from a Small Pox vaccine? I was born in 1967 and I was immunized. When I deployed to Iraq in 2008 I was immunized again. I got the big scab but when it went away I was left with a scar that was pretty much too small to see. Just like when I was a baby. There was no information I could find about complications from getting it twice after that many years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccinated-for-smallpox-as-a-child-any-good-now/564612.md?page=1)