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.
Some old ways of treating and understanding about smallpox. Well worth the look!
Well, one of us is trying to belittle... but it isn't me. I think you need to take your ego down a peg or two. The "question" is my first sentence in #73.
Do you know how readily smallpox is spread via inanimate objects? I've seen conflicting information. Some suggests that the virus can remain on objects for months, and other information tells me that it's been rare for even bedding from ill patients to cause further infection. This will make a huge difference if an outbreak takes place before immunization takes place on a large scale.
Thanks in advance for any guidance!
Oh wow, I said almighty tourista dollar like that is a bad thing! It's not just when it keeps diseases which can kill us secret.
As an aside, my DR. reported the case of smallpox he saw to the CDC at the time and he was not believed, he was told the disease did not exist.
I was originally vacinated prior to '55.I was also given at least one ( and I think two ) booster shots;one in '61 and the other in '67 !
The sane view of Small-pox is that it is a beneficent disease, or rather Nature’s way of eliminating disease.
When one banishes from one’s mind all the professional abuse that has been hurled at Small-pox for over a hundred years, and when one studies it calmly and without professional prejudice, it is perceived that Small-pox is nothing more nor less than a healing crisis.
Small-pox removes impurities by bringing them to the surface and getting rid of them by pustular eruption, and this mighty effort of Nature to free the body from undesirable matter is familiar to all students of Nature cure as "A Healing Crisis."
Small-pox is not a disease contracted by the action of some mysterious microbe. If the body is almost clogged with poison and Small-pox is contracted, then the patient will have it thoroughly, because Nature will make a correspondingly big effort to eliminate the poison from the system. The temperature will be high and perspiration profuse to get rid of some of it in that way. A great area of the skin surface will be in a state of eruption to eradicate some of it by means of pustules, and unusual thirst will cause the patient to take more liquid- Nature’s means of elimination via the kidneys. In fact, the more clearly we realise Nature’s aims and needs, the more we appreciate the perfection of this great healing crisis.
Patients who take it lightly are those who are less encumbered with poison than those who take it severely.
THE BENEFICENT DISEASE
Most people, through wrong living, lack of fresh air, exercise and right diet, carry within themselves more or less organic poison. This poison tends to accumulate unless it is kept in check by suitable baths, right breathing, fasting etc. When it has increased to such an extent as to interfere seriously with the normal functioning of the body, then nothing that medical knowledge and skill can do will be so thoroughly beneficial as an attack of Small-pox.
To those who have had neither the opportunity nor the time to study the subject, and to those who have always accepted without question the claptrap that has been written about Small-pox during the last forty years, this considered statement of fact may sound like the irresponsible raving of a lunatic.
Yes they do sound like the ravings of a lunatic.
No offence meant to anyone who believes the above, but I will still have my daughter and myself vaccinated when vaccine is aaliable. Are you talking about the above? Not good advice IMHO!
My doctor was an old man (near retirement age) when he vaccinated me the second time. He had also given me my first one. He had lived through a time when small pox was still an active health threat. I remember him telling me that there was very little chance that I would have a second scar. He said that I was more than likely still immune from the first vacination. He said that is was very rare for a person to have a second scar. (I remember this because no teenage girl wanted an extra scar)
My husband was first vaccinated in the early 1950's and then again in the late sixties before a trip overseas . Same story here second vaccination didn't leave a scar. I remember people saying that the second one didn't take.
I remember that one girl in college had two scars and that she was the only one that I ever knew that had two scars.
My parents were both born in 1910, I know that they had been vaccinated long before I was born, either when they were young or as soon as the vaccine was available. Mom took a trip to Europe in the mid 1970's and was re-vaccinated at that time. She had no second scar. She figured she would since it had been so long since her first vaccination.
I know my dad had more than one but I don't know the years on his but again it only took once.
Now not being a doctor I don't know but I have a strong feeling that the immunity may last quite a long time since the second ones never seemed to take. I am hoping that this mini-history may give you some clue as how long and strong the immunity may really be.
Here's the info. I was referring to. One in 300,000 will develop some degree of encephalitis. A fourth of those will die -- and another site suggests that the risk is most concentrated in children under 18 who are being vaccinated for the first time. A tolerable risk, if we have an outbreak. But, if we don't, vaccinating 300 million people would result in 250 deaths, by my math. That's an Oklahoma City.
As I read about the issue, it seems the idea of producing the vaccine, then distributing it and having it ready is prudent. However, I'm not sure prophylactic vaccination with the risk of side effects in young children is yet warranted. Nor has any smallpox expert I've seen interviewed recommended this.
If vacinations don't work, then why is it that those who have been vacinated against getting smallpox, have never gotten it ?
IF there's not enough vaccine.
IF there's not time to vaccinate everyone.
IF the vaccine that we have available doesn't work.
IF there is no other choice, this is a better alternative than doing nothing at all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.