Immune Memory From Smallpox Vaccination Last More 50 Years, According To Emory Research

Science Daily ^ | 11-12-2003 | Emory University

[blam]

The question of long term immunity to smallpox from vaccinations decades ago has been asked many times here on FR.

[blam]

Ping.

[Van Jenerette]

Thanks. Good read!

[spodefly]

Thanks for the post. I know many of us older Freepers had been wondering if the vaccinations we had as kids would still be effective in the event of a Religion of Peace® smallpox attack.

[Paleo Conservative]

Rafi Ahmed, PhD, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and director of the Emory Vaccine Center,

I just hope he's really on our side and not the terrorists.

[Blood of Tyrants]

And this opens up a different question. Scientists and doctors tell us that virus and bacteria evolve fairly rapidly. Then why hasn't the smallpox virus evolved to simply avoid the vaccine antibodies?

[Blood of Tyrants]

P.S. Is the military still vaccinating personnel agains smallpox? They were in the early 80's.

[wimpycat]

Because the disease was eradicated from the population, and the only strains of smallpox that exist all come from from just a couple of laboratories.

[iceskater]

yes, the started vaccinating again before going into Iraq

[Alas Babylon!]

No, not for the longest time, but I believe they are starting up again. I retired in 1998, but had my last smallpox vaccine in 1979.

[Calpernia]

ping

[goodnesswins]

Well....looks like I'm safe for about 2-3 more years.....

[Blood of Tyrants]

Not acceptable. Smallpox vaccinations have been available since the early 19th century.

[Jim Noble]

Scientists and doctors tell us that virus and bacteria evolve fairly rapidly. Then why hasn't the smallpox virus evolved to simply avoid the vaccine antibodies?

Because antibodies recognize and directly attack the physical structure of the organism.

Antibiotics are like dumb bombs. They rely on the physiology of the bug to do their work, and the bugs are pretty good at altering their physiology to compensate.

Antibodies are billions of years old-they have been evolving for all that time. They attack physical properties of the organism that are much harder (or impossible) to change.

[Calpernia]

Anyone know how similar chicken pox is to small pox? Children are being vaccinated against chicken pox now. What is the opinion for this building immunities against small pox?

[blackdog]

The human immune system seems to have a capacity issue when it comes to immunity which is not referenced in this article. The system seems to handle thirty responses at a time. It will discard least used immunity responses in favor of newly introduced or most heavily needed exposures. This is one of the reasons that individuals can suddenly find themselves sickened by something which never before bothered them. It is also the purpose of boosters. The booster just tells your system that this nasty virus is still on the thirty most needed list and prevents it from being dropped in favor of that flu shot from three years back.

I'm not a details guy. I remembered it here on FR about two years ago as a sourced story and since then, it's been mentioned at my livestock seminars as it highlights the need for boosters.

[wimpycat]

What do you mean "not acceptable"? My answer may be incorrect, but "unacceptable"? I know smallpox vaccinations have been available for a long time. They used to use cowpox virus. That's how inoculation was discovered. They figured out that people who got cowpox never got smallpox.

The disease has been eradicated from the populace, though. The last known case was somewhere in the 3rd world, in the early 1970's. So that much is fact. Smallpox vaccinations are derived from the smallpox virus. The only live smallpox virus in existence today is that grown and kept alive in only a few laboratories. The U.S. had some, the Brits had some, and the Soviets had some. Maybe a couple other labs have it, too. If any smallpox fell into the wrong hands, chances are it came from the Russian labs.

Unlike influenza and the common cold, which have many different strains and seem to be constantly mutating, I don't believe the smallpox virus changes all that much, anyway.

[blackdog]

See my post on the list of thirty. That is also how your system adapts to mutations in a virus for which you had been immunized. It does have it's own way of rotating the older versions out and adapting to the newer ones.

Our creator was a brilliant designer(except for abuse and intentionally inflicted damages)

[DoctorMichael]

Thanks.

[wimpycat]

Small pox is related to cowpox. As far as I know, it's not similar enough to chicken pox for someone to have immunity to smallpox after catching chicken pox.