Posted on 10/21/2001 10:33:10 PM PDT by bonesmccoy
Just wanted to leave you all some info on Vaccinia vaccination. Basically, last I heard the small pox immunization was not being produced in the USA. There was a report today that DOD has ordered supplies from UK. Frankly, I don't know how the UK could be producing the vaccine. The only known stockpiles of the virus (after World Health Organization/UN announced eradication of the virus from Earth) were in the US and USSR. If a UK company is making vaccine, what is in the vaccine?
The old vaccine was produced using techniques that would not be licensed or approved today. So, the stockpile doesn't meet current specs. Also, my info was that the stockpile is about 20 years old.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm not about to use 20-year-old vaccine in my practice without knowing that the vaccine was needed. I certainly would not use it in our children, unless I was convinced that a threat exists.
I do have the scar from the smallpox vaccine on my arm. My doctor gave it to me in the late 1970's. So, I feel a certain measure of comfort from that knowledge. However, it is important to note that the immunologic effect of the vaccine wanes (decreases) over the years.
Talking-heads on CNN et al have been stating that those who received the vaccine may not be immune. Well, I would like to point out to those @%^*!s that the original small pox vaccine was a LIVE VIRUS. That's why your skin ended up with welts, sores, and then scarred for life. The Japanese used the Oka Chicken Pox Vaccine for 20 years before the US gov't finally got it released to our nation. Have the Japanese seen any waning immunity from Oka Varicella Zoster Vaccine (the chickenpox vaccine)? NO! Yet, there are still idiot talking-heads who are PAID to show up on some news program and to spout incorrect info that the OkaVZV vaccine has concerns about waning immunity. ACCORDING TO WHOM?
The FDA can find an answer to the question of waning smallpox immunity real fast. THOMPSON NEEDS TO TELL CDC TO COMMISSION A FOLLOW-UP STUDY ON THE OLD SMALLPOX IMMUNIZATION. Have CDC draw serum samples on our generation of kids (who got the vaccine when we were young and are now consenting adults). Confirm when the patient received the vaccine and check the sample for any antibodies to smallpox. If you find IgG antibodies (assuming we know how to locate such antibodies, which I can not vouch for), then you will know if boosters are needed in previously immunized individuals.
Vaccinia Vaccine
Vaccinia (smallpox) vaccine, a licensed product, is a preparation of infectious vaccinia virus whose origin and manipulation is FDA approved. The vaccinia is grown in the skin of a vaccinated bovine calf (2). In 1982, the only active licensed producer of vaccinia vaccine in the United States, Wyeth Laboratories, discontinued production for general use, and, in 1983, distribution to the civilian population was discontinued. Smallpox vaccination has not been required for international travelers since January 1982, and International Certificates of Vaccination no longer include smallpox vaccination.
CDC provides vaccinia vaccine for laboratory workers directly involved with smallpox or closely related orthopox viruses (e.g., monkeypox and vaccinia). Due to clinical trials involving recombinant vaccinia virus vaccines, health-care workers (e.g., physicians and nurses) may now be exposed to vaccinia and recombinant vaccinia viruses and should be considered for vaccinia vaccination (6).
There is no evidence that smallpox vaccination has any therapeutic value in the treatment or prevention of recurrent herpes simplex infection, warts, oral thrush, or any other diseases (6). Requests for smallpox vaccine for these unapproved uses cannot be granted.
I believe that the risks of immunization are worth it. Besides, since 1980 we have had AIDS come up and spur research into viruses, anti viral drugs, so that the statistics of adverse reactions are changed by new medical advances, even a new vaccine that they are making that will probably be alot safer than the old vaccine against smallpox.
Cowpox is a much milder disease than smallpox so if there are bad reactions they'll be along the cowpox path not smallpox. In the last few years we have been having our kids vaccinated against chickenpox which is a usually mild disease like cowpox is and the vaccination or the disease itself has a certain inherent risk of adverse reactions but people still vaccinate their kids or take them to "chickenpox parties". For the record, my kids had chickenpox before the vaccine came out and I didn't take them to a "chickenpox party".
Look at the risk I am in if bitten by a rattlesnake and if they still make that antivenom via horses. I am severely allergic to horses so I have the choice of either dealing with the venom without the antivenom or else taking the antivenom and the medical team having to stand by incase I have a severe allergic reaction to the antivenom via horse host, if they can't find an antivenom not made from horse hosts. We all have to put up with certain risks and decisions.
I'd have my kids and myself re/vaccinated against smallpox in a heart beat if it were offered and available. Others might choose not to have their children or themselves vaccinated.
I was. I don't.
So smallpox could have infected or touched almost the total population of the United States before anyone came down with the symptoms that usually appear 2 weeks after exposure.
But don't let it scare you. I don't think it'd be that bad.
YIKES! I certainly wasn't clear on the above paragraph! What I was asking is if they make a cowpox vaccine for cows, if it(the cowpox vaccine for cows) could be used on humans after figuring out the correct dosage for a human as compared to a cow.
Have any more info on the Mexico connection? I´d be willing to give that a try!
What scares me is the four or five days the government and gov´t agencies sit on the information deciding whether to tell the public, worrying about the economy.
Don´t even think they won´t do it, you know they will...
(I know you're not...)
I would like some stats on deaths 20 years ago from these compared statistically to today...might be interesting....as for our family...we wait until the last moment to immunize the kids for school..preferring natural immunity..Interesting in NY State we have to immunize babies against Hep.B..a disease transferred by sex and needles..I guess that's just incase they decide to get out of their cribs and party huh?
BTW I am an RN..worked in Hospitals and detox units where I would have regular exposure to Heb B..and I never chose to have it..( And I never caught Hep B from all the blood and waste material I was around..)
Wrong. Ebola kills people so quickly that it can't spread too far. Smallpox was continuously transmitted from person to person for thousands of years!
I know that, if I ever said otherwise, it was a typo.
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