[PAR35]

Might one conclude that this is the father's first vaccination for smallpox? I don't recall any particular reaction when I used to get boosters.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Good question! I'm not sure. I never got a booster myself, but my folks traveled a lot and got a few as a result. I don't recall them complaining about much of a reaction as a result, nor of additional vaccination scars, but then I thought you needed to have some kind of a visual reaction or it wasn't thought to have taken. Given that he's military and has a small child it is likely he was born after routine vaccination ceased and they haven't resumed long enough for anyone to need a booster, so absent a certain answer to your logical thought I presume he's a first vaccination. I also don't know whether repeat vaccinations have a lower risk for such complications. They might, as even vaccinations a long time ago seem to provide some protection against smallpox; they won't prevent you from contracting it but they do lower your risk of dying from it.

[USMCWife6869]

My husband was told when he got his last month that it was supposed to be good for 5 years.

This is the military's site for vaccination information:

http://www.smallpox.army.mil/default.asp

[JohnBovenmyer]

I had a chance to ask the senior Dermatologist in the family, my Dad. He's given and evaluated vaccinations as well as been revaccinated a few times, whereas other than my own as a kid my knowledge is all from books. The last cases of smallpox here were about 70 years ago. Dad says repeat vaccinations shouldn't produce much of a reaction compared to first ones, but they should produce a small bump than turns into a small blister that doesn't scar. It has to be the right kind of reaction as some other rashes that can develop at the site don't prove the booster worked. If nothing at all happened it didn't work.