How long do Smallpox vaccinations last?

[riley1992]

10 years? Then I am about 22 years overdue for a follow-up. I didn't even realize I was supposed to get another.

[OrangeDaisy]

I started school in 1965. I have the smallpox vaccine scar on my arm, and so do my parents who started school around 1940. I assume the disease was presumed erradicated before they would've given me a booster because I never got one, but why wouldn't my parents have gotten boosters in their adulthood? I think at one time we must've believed it was good for life, kind of like the measles vaccine. I received one measles vaccine when I was a child. I had to take a 2nd measles vaccine when I enrolled at a state university in the mid-90s because of measle outbreaks amoung college kids. Funny thing was that I had to take the MMR (Mumps, Measles, Rubella), cause that's how they package the vaccine now, and I had mumps at age 5.

[conservative cat]

A couple of days ago I read that the government has ordered more small pox vaccine made and it would be ready summer of '02. Until then, they are testing diluted vaccine to see how well it takes- there is a little bit of vaccine in stock, but not nearly enough to deal with a big outbreak, hence the dilution.

[AK2KX]

I have my Immunization Record in front of me from the Los Angeles County Health Department, Van Nuys Health Center.
My smallpox vaccination was on 11/29/67, and it is recommended on the card to have boosters every 3 to 5 years for all ages.
Kind of leaves us out in the cold, eh?

[Henchman]

If I recall correctly, there was a thing called COW POX that milkmaids got. However they didn't get small pox. Isn't there an immune relationship between chicken and small poxen too? Can't we vaccinate against those diseases and acquire a similar immunity to small pox?

And unless the Swiss start sending some of those doses to the US, your old small pox vaccination will last until you catch it.

[hd5574]

After I posted I remembered that my Dad had more than one and only one of his took. I do remember one girl in college that had 2 scars. In college scars were a big thing, but she was the only person I remember. Also I do remember my doctor telling that most times the second one didn't take and that most people had a very long protection from the first one.

[AK2KX]

"poxen"

another Unix geek? cool!

[wienerdog.com]

There are more of us than you think. Perhaps we should think about pooling our resources and start embellishing some raghead web sites.

[Movemout]

Rte 700 just south and west of Snickersville TPK

[OrangeDaisy]

I'm guessing that by the early 70's smallpox was considered eradicated in the U.S. and they quit giving boosters unless you were traveling outside the U.S. That's probably why we children of the 60's never got a booster. I know my parents have only one scar. I'll have to ask them if they remember getting boosters that "didn't take."

[OrangeDaisy]

Unfortunately no one can get another one right now. The vaccine has not been manufactured since the WHO deemed smallpox erradicated worldwide in 1977.

[birddog]

What do you all mean when you say the shot didn't "take"? Did it produce a smallpox at the shot site if it took? I'm curious because I was vaccinated, but I have almost no scar from it.

[hd5574]

I was vaccinated in the late 1940's the first time and again in the mid 1960's. The best that I remember the doctor scratched or used something to break the skin on my upper arm and then put the vaccine on that spot. I don't remember a shot, but it was a long time ago. I think it was more like a TB skin test. If I had reacted I would have gotten a blister and have had another scar on my arm.

At the time I when to college, small pox was still around (but not in the US) so we all had to get a second vaccination. My best memories of it all were that almost no one had 2 scars. My scar is a small circle about half the size of a dime but I have seen some people who had larger ones, some as big as a quarter. Mine is about 6 inches below my shoulder on my left arm.

I asked my dentist (He's also a surgeon and really keeps up on stuff) about having had more than one vaccination and he thought that anyone who had been vaccinated would have at the least some measure of protection if not total protection from small pox. Hope this helps.

[Askel5]

I wish to know more about your handle.