Sorry, Lizardling . I shoulda put TMI on that one.
I’ll put a warning on this one, but yeah, smallpox is awful when it comes to disfiguring its victims… if you can stomach it, take a look here – WARNING – The images displayed on that page are of a 9 month old unvaccinated boy and tracks the progression of smallpox from the first symptoms to recovery.
http://gold.aecom.yu.edu/id/management/smallpox-index.html
I carefully studied smallpox and other epidemics in a series of seminars on the history of medicine and had a blast… you kind of have to be a little on the morbid side, but it’s fascinating.
As for smallpox vaccine scars, my mother has a sizable one (Canada, 1951) but my dad does not (Canada, 1955). I’m not sure why he doesn’t. I was born after the official “Yay, it’s erradicated!” song and dance.
Yeah, smallpox was disfiguring. Mark Twain says in Connecticut Yankee that practically everyone in Arthur’s Britain had had it, and the commonest swight was “the waffle-iron face”. My piano teacher, who was not old and was, aside from this, very beautiful, had very prominent networks of smallpox scarring on both cheeks. You don’t see this nowadays.
I don’t think so, Small pox is the only one you ever hear about scarring people. Not to mention you don’t even need a shot for polio - I remember when my brother got the vaccine it was something you drank. That cuts down on the possibilty of it scarring a lot of people too if there’s that as a choice as well (the oral polio vaccine was developed in 1958).
Since I was born five years after they stopped vaccinating for small pox, I don’t have that scar. I’d rather have a scar and some measure of protection against the disease on the off chance terrorists spread it, but no one asked those of us born after 1970 what we though, huh?
Mine’s very small as well. Smaller than a dime. But I’ve seen people who have scars the size of a half-dollar. I don’t know what that means.
I’ve got a dime-sized scar on my left arm and a huge scar on my right thigh. The one on my leg was from when I was a baby. My mother said I had a bad reaction to a vaccine and my leg swelled up to several times it’s normal size. Not sure which vaccine that was though, it could have just been the usual baby vaccines. I remember getting the smallpox vaccine when I was 10 or 12, it would have been just before they stopped them. I was born in 1960.
My wife (Chinese, born in H.K. in '69) has one just under the size of a quarter. I don’t have one, born in the U.S. in '75.
Born New York 1959. Mine is dime sized on upper left arm. Quite pale at this point.
Mine is virtually undetectable now that I’m “long in the tooth” as they say. And it didn’t discolor, either. Phew! I thought I’d have it forever.
I was born in '75 and I do have one -
however, I was born in India.
I was born in 85, and I have a scar from my TB vaccination.
Wow…looking at some of those pics is creepy. Mine is larger than a quarter, and quite noticeable on the left upper bicep. But as others have said, better that than the real thing. Plus it makes for an interesting conversation topic.
Mine is on my left tricep, but I really have to hunt for it because it’s faded so much (like every other scar I ever got). I guess I’m lucky that way, because with my sense of balance and coordination I’d be a walking mass of scar tissue otherwise.
Born 1970 at Offutt AFB near Omaha NE. Moved with my parents when he was stationed in Turkey sometime in 1971, returned to the USA in '73.
No scar, and as far as I know I wasn’t ever vaccinated for this.
It always surprises me that having lived overseas, the USAF doctors that oversaw our health care then didn’t vaccinate me.
I have, however, had a round of rabies shots. The old fashioned type, with multiple shots over multiple days. No scarring. Thankfully I was WAY too young to remember it to this day. Apparently I was very good while getting the shots, probably due to the reward of a lollypop when it was done. (scratched badly by a cat, too young to say which one it was. Therefore, it wasn’t captured and tested, so I got the shots)
Mine is tiny, about the size of a pencil eraser. I didn’t get my smallpox vaccine as a child - rather, as part of an AIDS vaccine trial 15 years ago through the NIH. The were looking for people who hadn’t been previously vaccinated and were willing to participate. They didn’t get many takers, of course, but both my sister and I volunteered. Anyway, I hadn’t looked at the scar in a long time, but it’s barely visible. probably because they monitered it so closely, and we had to wear bandages over the vaccine site and resulting scab. There wasn’t a chance of knocking off the scab. All that and we still don’t have a viable vaccine.
StG
Big round smallpox scar on my left thigh, birthday 1979 (b. in India). Generally it’s given on the arm but my parents insisted the doctors do it on my upper thigh so my sari arms would remain unmarked.
BF has one too, same birth year, (b. in ME/NA) on his arm.
I’m pretty certain WHO mandated babies to be immunized for smallpox in India only until 79 or 80 b/c my sister who was born in the same hospital in 1981 also in India doesn’t have it and my parents were seriously OCD about our health b/c they lost their first kid and then had years of infertility till the two of us popped up one after the other.
My grandfather was a smallpox survivor! Scary thought to think that what I consider such a medieval disease was affecting people within recent generations.
Incidentally, my grandfather passed away before I was born and I’m continually amazed at how handsome (not to mention European…sometimes I have wonder about my family origins when both my grandfathers don’t even look Indian) he looks in the photographs I’ve seen but my father told me that the smallpox left significant scarring all over his body and he had a comparatively mild case.
Also apparently they used to try to pop the pustules while they were still on the lower body in an attempt for them not to reach the face.
Is there a leprosy vaccine? Because whenever I’m in India I always see leprosy graffitti (I’m not kidding).
Big ol’ scar on my left shoulder, b. 1970.
Chicks dig it. “Yeah, I got this one to help rid the world of the most deadly disease ever. Saved humanity. That Dustin Hoffman movie was made for to honor us unsung heroes…”
Okay, since you studied it, you may know the answer to this. I noticed my roommate’s kids had a much rougher case of chicken pox than my kid did (they were all sick within the same two-week period). Her kids are half Mexican and they were visibly in worse shape than my kid (and felt worse as well). Are there certain races that are more susceptible to pox break-outs than others?
according to this site:
Born in 48, I remember getting mine. (Maybe I should add this to the older than dirt thread.) 