Smallpox Immunity Warning

BBC News ^ | Wednesday, 29 May, 2002, 18:00 GMT 19:00 UK | staff

[realpatriot71]

Over here, I wanna shot. Why can't the CDC leave this to the market to decide?

I'm with you. If you want a drug, you should be able to get it, but you can thank this country's current WOD's and all the policies that go along with it for your not being able to get the shot that you want.

As to getting the shot, why would you want to? The risk is quite small, in fact at the present you have a greater chance of dying from the vaccination than from the an outbreak of smallpox.

[Jean S]

I've never had trouble getting a tetnus shot. My doctor gives them on request and our county health department gives them for about $5.

[knak]

another interesting article came out today about small pox vacs and Saddam.

Vaccinate Saddam against invasion?

[Ahban]

In the 1700s there was an English doctor, J. Edwards, who noticed that milkmaids never got smallpox. Cows had (have?) a similar disease called cowpox. He did not know why, but basically the exposure to cowpox immunized them from smallpox. He went so far as to take pus from a cowpox sore and stick it in a cut on a patient's arm. It worked, but he did not know why.

Time to visit a cattle ranch?

[realpatriot71]

Ahem . . . that was William Jenner, and I'm pretty sure most of your cows are all vaccinated. However, I suppose you can try whatever you want :-).

[Elenya]

Yes. Time to have a Pet-the-Smallpoxed-Cow Day.

[realpatriot71]

LOL - both wrong it was Edward Jenner

[umgud]

While we all worry about smallpox via terror, consider that we are seeing a resugance of smallpox, mainly due to our immigration policy, or lack thereof. We surely don't screen illegals sneaking in.

[realpatriot71]

we are seeing a resugance of smallpox

Really, where do you get your info?

[Black Agnes]

The cow-pox innoculation is called 'vaccination' because the particular strain that causes cow-pox is called vaccinia. The 'take the scab from human smallpox victim' innoculation is called 'variolation' because the strain that causes smallpox itself is called variola.

[Elenya]

More than 2000 years ago the Chinese prevented smallpox by taking dead skin from a human victim and placing it on a light scratch.

Very interesting! I knew the story about the milkmaids, but I never heard that one.

[realpatriot71]

More than 2000 years ago the Chinese prevented smallpox

Nope - you got smallpox, but the dz was usually not as terrible. Hey if you're going to get it anyway. . .

[Stirner]

The article does not explain how they find out if someone who was vaccinated is (or is not) still immune. They can't expose the person to the virus. Maybe they expose a tissue sample to the virus or expose the person to a similar but non-harmful virus and look for an immune response.

[Black Agnes]

Good article here...

The origin of smallpox vaccination

[realpatriot71]

You can expose the person to viral proteins and look for an immune response specifically a quick IgG reponse.

[Black Agnes]

True. The idea here was to expose the bodies immune system to the smallpox virus, but not in such great numbers that the immune system was overwhelmed and succumbed.

Interesting side note. In some African countries, in the countryside a significant percentage (30% IIRC) of the population shows antibodies to ebola. This means they are in contact with the vector in such a way that they are exposed enough to tickle their immune response but not enough to actually come down with ebola itself.

[Paleo Conservative]

I'm with you. If you want a drug, you should be able to get it, but you can thank this country's current WOD's and all the policies that go along with it for your not being able to get the shot that you want.

As to getting the shot, why would you want to? The risk is quite small, in fact at the present you have a greater chance of dying from the vaccination than from the an outbreak of smallpox.

That's because there has been no research on making a safer vaccine. The level of saftey of a vaccine used against an extinct disease must be much higher than for and endemic disease. The vaccines that are currenty in storage are made from a strain of vaccina first isolated in New York City in the 1870s. If we are not careful, we could have the same problems with Polio and other diseases that are potential targets for erradication.