2 Get Infections After Touching Soldiers (smallpox vaccine caution: preventable problem)

Newsday.com ^ | March 6, 2003 | AP

[FairOpinion]

WASHINGTON -- Two women developed infections after touching soldiers who had been vaccinated against smallpox and then touching their eyes.

Both illnesses were preventable. Health authorities are reminding people who get the shot to keep the spot where they were inoculated covered and to avoid touching the skin and the bandages that cover it.

The woman was hospitalized and treated with vaccine immune globulin, which can counteract the most serious reactions to the vaccine.

[FairOpinion]

I think this is important information. Those who receive the vaccine, need to keep it covered, and if they touch it, when changing bandages, wash their hands carefully and not touch eyes, etc. to make sure they prevent transmission.

The other important info is the use of vaccinia immune globulin, for people who have a reaction, which is available, and has been approved by the FDA.

[Damagro]

Were the side effects this serious when millions of us got this vaccine in earlier times? I got it in 1962, all I remember was a great big scab. Stuck out about a half an inch

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Oh for heaven's sake! The fright mongers are at it again!
50 years my brother and I got our smallpox vaccinations ages 7 and 8. My sister was "too young" said the doctor so she didn't get one.
After the vaccinations scabbed over good my brother and sister got into a wrestling fight and she accidentally scraped off his scab. Later she scratched a mosquito bite on her ankle and the smallpox scratch "took" from vaccine under her fingernail.
She never needed a shot after that and when school officials asked her to prove she had a smallpox vaccination she pointed to the round scar on her ankle.

Now, a vaccine scar on the eye might be a little different.

[FairOpinion]

"Now, a vaccine scar on the eye might be a little different."
-----

LOL!

I posted the article, because for once they actually pointed out that simple things, like using some common sense and NOT scratching your eyes after scratching the location of the vaccine prevents the problems.

A few days ago they had this news item, but carefully omitted that part, they just made a big thing about how two women got sick from the vaccine.

I completely agree with both of you, when for many years the vaccine was mandatory, there were no problems, nobody complained. Now, many don't even want it to be made available on a voluntary basis, citing the "problem" that people who have compromised immune systems may catch it from others who got the vaccine.

What we need is a vaccine against human idiocy and irresponsibility.

[Pushi]

My mother, who would be 101 if she were still living, told of a family huge reunion she attend as a small child back in Missouri--they all had about eight kids per family so there were a lot of kids there. One of her cousins had been vaccinated for smallpox. One of the older male cousins took the scab off the little girl's arm, scratched all the other kids arms, and rubbed the scab on the scratches. She said he vaccinated dozens of kids with that scab--and that some of them really took in a big way with huge eruptions and swelled-up arms. Ironically, her parents came down with smallpox on the train on the way back to Texas. They almost died. After that, when there was a smallpox epidemic they were called on to nurse people with smallpox and prepare those who died for burial.

[Darkshadow]

Two women developed infections after touching soldiers who had been vaccinated against smallpox and then touching their eyes.

So, are they effectively vaccinated now?

[Paleo Conservative]

Apparently vaccinia infections of the eyes can be very serious.

[Damagro]

Yeah, a big ol scab on the eye might be uncomfortable lol. Not to mention people asking about the wierd scar on your eye for the rest of your life

[Damagro]

Yeah, a big ol scab on the eye might be uncomfortable lol. Not to mention people asking about the wierd scar on your eye for the rest of your life