Smallpox shots sicken some, startling researchers

Washington Post via Seattle Times ^ | December 5, 2002 | Ceci Connolly

[sarcasm]

WASHINGTON — As physical specimens, the Baylor University students were fit and healthy, the "crème de la crème," in the words of researcher Kathy Edwards. Yet when she inoculated them with smallpox vaccine, arms swelled, temperatures spiked and panic spread.

It was the same at clinics in Iowa, Tennessee and California. Of 200 young adults who received the vaccine in a recent government study, one-third missed at least one day of work or school, 75 had high fevers and several were put on antibiotics because physicians worried that their blisters signaled a serious bacterial infection.

[realpatriot71]

Anytime you invite a live virus into your system you may experience some "complications". I hope the Gov is sure about this . . .

[SevenDaysInMay]

Time to think and hug our loved ones. Then lock and load.

[Rain-maker]

Human DNA mutates over time, while the vaccine is a 50 year old cowpox derivative.

Something tells me the square block won't fit in the round hole here. Patient beware alert.

[ChicagahAl]

My favorite was always the Plague vaccine, when I was in the Marines. We would always get the shot on Friday afternoon, then go to bed and wake up Monday morning. Real butt-kicker, that one.

[grania]

And, these are college students who should be relatively healthy with strong immune systems. They must have had a pretty rigorous physical to be involved in a study.

One cannot help but think this vaccine could have catastrophic consequences on the general population. If the vaccine itself causes a contagious disease, it would be more likely to spread if a large part of the populaton gets it at once.

[TennesseeProfessor]

I really hope the "startling researchers" headline was from a clueless editor. Any live vaccine will cause problems in a percentage of cases -- possibly death in very succiptable people. The smallpox vaccine is not harmless -- but far better to get the vaccine than the disease.

[yoe]

Take this article with a grain of salt!

[backhoe]

I really hope the "startling researchers" headline was from a clueless editor. Any live vaccine will cause problems in a percentage of cases -- possibly death in very succiptable people. The smallpox vaccine is not harmless -- but far better to get the vaccine than the disease.

I agree, neighbor... smallpox is ghastly beyond the ability of most people to comprehend it. We, in our protected little world don't see much of the nastiness out there.

[Hunble]

You got that one right! I will take the Smallpox over the Plague vaccine any old day.

That Plague vaccination raised a boil like welt on my arm the size of a golf ball and made me sick for a week.

[BJungNan]

Take this article with a grain of salt!

why, is that what caused the swelling?

[Dec31,1999]

Yada, yada, yada. but they were all OK in the end.

[SubMareener]

My favorite was always the Plague vaccine, when I was in the Marines. We would always get the shot on Friday afternoon, then go to bed and wake up Monday morning. Real butt-kicker, that one.

We got them before we went off to do "oceanographic research in the North Atlantic." Do you know how long the protection lasts?

[Helifino]

"I just wanted to go to bed for a day or two there," said Alison Francis, a New York University student who received the vaccine. Francis, 24, said she felt tired and achy after getting her shots. Her arm was heavy, warm to the touch and terribly itchy, she said.

What a bunch of wimps we've become. I distinctly remember getting the immunization at age 6 and feeling like crap for a day or two. My Mom was concerned and watched me closely, but she also told me the equivalent of "Suck it up, kid. That's normal." I guess a little pain was expected back then and was no big deal.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I wonder if the Post would be so eager to report this problem if Clinton were still in office...

[OBone]

It also itched. All you heard after getting the vaccine was "don't scratch it" and "don't knock the scab off".

[Alas Babylon!]

Remember standing in line with medics on BOTH sides of you like some sort of factory production line?

The one that I hated was typhoid. None of the shots really hurt, but that one always laid me out.

[Lion's Cub]

It also itched. All you heard after getting the vaccine was "don't scratch it" and "don't knock the scab off".

I remember that! It also seems to me it was normal to be under the weather for a day or two, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

[Jim Noble]

>> I hope the Gov is sure about this . . .<<

They're not sure-and they are unwilling (so far) to be responsible for the smallest risk-which is why the smallpox vaccine program is so cumbersome and bureaucratic.

If your standard is that they be sure-not reasonably confident, not willing to run measured risks, not willing to do what it takes to fight and to win a war-then we are going to lose.

[LadyDoc]

My favorite was always the Plague vaccine

I never got plague vaccine, but every time I got Typhoid, I had to take off three days. Once in Africa, I chose a time when things were quiet. Alas, had to get out of bed for emergencies anyway... bummer.

This is what I was warning a lot of people about earlier: Side effects. And if you are HIV positive, you could end up in the hospital.

Luckiily, if you had the vaccine as a kid, the reaction is mild.

On the other hand, smallpox is lethal. The mild type has a 30 percent mortality, the severe type 80 percent. And if Sadam is getting the Mousepox, a lot of people will get sicker, even with the vaccine.

One reason that the Indians died so massively in smallpox epidemics was because everyone was sick at the same time, so no one got proper nursing.

On the other hand, if Sadam gives us smallpox, it will spread worldwide, and the Arabs etc. will die much more quickly than we do.