1/21/2003: Normal smallpox vaccination

[Undertoad]

Public Service Announcement: this is what a "normal" smallpox vaccination looks like. I had no idea. No wonder it leaves a mark.

It seems downright medieval, doesn't it? Funny how we've developed medicine to the point where we can measure the resonant magnetism of the body and determine useful things from that, but making sure we don't get a terrible disease is still so... backwards.

I know it probably represents the state-of-the-art of 40 years ago, and I understand how it works, but still!

[Undertoad]

Hey, BTW, a quick pointer to IotD folks who may not know about other Cellar areas. If you like the IotD you may also like some of the images in the Cellar's Quality Images section as well. Sometimes stuff doesn't make the IotD, and sometimes people want to post their own images, and those things will wind up in this other area.

[russotto]

I know it probably represents the state-of-the-art of 40 years ago, and I understand how it works, but still!

Not 40 years ago. More like 100 years ago.

[Elspode]

People who are pushing 50 (like me, for example) can remember when they got their polio vaccinations, I'll bet. For us, oral vaccines for polio had not yet been invented, and the process at the time involved being stuck multiple times with a needle over a dime to quarter-sized area of the upper outside bicep, just below the shoulder. It must have been semi-traumatic, because I got mine at age 4 or thereabouts, and I remember the experience pretty clearly.

Needless to say, it leaves a permanent scar, one that really doesn't look like anything else. For the younger folks, check out your parents' or older friends' arms (presuming they'll let you, and not think you're being bizarre). We've all got 'em.

As evidence of how much vaccination technology has improved over the years, I remember my mother (who would have been among the first generation of our society to have received systematic vaccination against polio) having had a scar that was the size of a silver dollar. Makes the scars we 50's babies carry around not so bad by comparison.

[joecacti]

i had not yet stumbled uppon the quality images section... good game!

[Slithy_Tove]

Originally posted by Elspode
People who are pushing 50 (like me, for example) can remember when they got their polio vaccinations, I'll bet. For us, oral vaccines for polio had not yet been invented, and the process at the time involved being stuck multiple times with a needle over a dime to quarter-sized area of the upper outside bicep, just below the shoulder. It must have been semi-traumatic, because I got mine at age 4 or thereabouts, and I remember the experience pretty clearly.

Needless to say, it leaves a permanent scar, one that really doesn't look like anything else.

Nope, that's the smallpox vaccination scar, from the process that the images above illustrate. The polio vaccination doesn't leave a scar. I'm *cough*fiftyish*cough* and I've got the smallpox scar on my left shoulder.

It may seem antiquated, but I don't see any other way it could be. The smallpox vaccine is a 'live virus' vaccine, that contains a weakened form of the disease. So is the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine, and the oral polio vaccine. All of these work by producing a minor infection, and stimulating the body's immune system so that it will be able to throw off a real infection with the full-strength bug if you are ever exposed to it. Kids who get the MMR vaccine commonly have mild fevers as a result of the infection with the weakened virus. People who got the smallpox vaccination get a single 'pock', instead of pox over their whole body. Again, it's a minor form of the disease.

The picture may be ugly, but the vaccine works well. Smallpox was the first disease humans were ever able to eradicate completely from the face of the earth. Not a small achievement. I wear my smallpox scar proudly.

I hope it stays eradicated.

[quzah]

I hope it stays eradicated.

It will...

...Unless the government thinks we aren't behind the "War Against Terrorism" enough, in which case, they'll pull out a jar and sprinkle it on some mail and say "Oooh, look at the evil people! Let's go bomb them!".

Meanwhile, Carnivore tags my post and the black vans come to pick me up...

Quzah.

[CharlieG]

Originally posted by Slithy_Tove
...snip....It may seem antiquated, but I don't see any other way it could be. The smallpox vaccine is a 'live virus' vaccine, that contains a weakened form of the disease....snip....

I'm 40, and I have the scar too - BTW your CLOSE in your description, but in the case of Smallpox it's NOT a weakened form of the virus - it's a different virus - cowpox - that happens to give immunity to smallpox - I believe all current smallpox vaccines come from the 1953 strain of cowpox

BTW Cowpox is where the term vaccination comes from - and technically, the ONLY vaccination is for smallpox - the rest are immunizations - Look up the latin root for cow

Main Entry: vac·cine
Pronunciation: vak-'sEn, 'vak-"
Function: noun
Etymology: French vaccin, from vaccine cowpox, from New Latin vaccina (in variolae vaccinae cowpox), from Latin, feminine of vaccinus, adjective, of or from cows, from vacca cow; akin to Sanskrit vasa cow

[Elspode]

This what I *really* like about The Cellar...lots of intelligent people with lots of interesting info. I also appreciate being corrected without either being told I'm an idiot or condescended to...such a difference from most other online sites I've frequented.

My mom always called the scar a polio scar...I had no reason to question her, and never bothered to actually check it out. Doh!

[Katkeeper]

All this talk about smallpox vaccination scars led me to check my own from a far distant decade. In those days, girls were vaccinated on the thigh so that they would not have a disfiguring mark on the arm. So I looked for my scar. I couldn't find it! See what you guys have to look forward to?

[chrisinhouston]

When I was a child, my grandmother who had grown up in China from the 1890's-1920's used to tell us to eat every grain of rice on our dinner plates or for each grain left we would have a "madza" on our face. I didn't find out till I was older that "madza" is the Chinese term for the mark of small pox.

God, she was a strange women.

[99 44/100% pure]

My co-worker's Chinese parents told him that each grain of rice left over foretold a pockmark on his future spouse's face. Perhaps they felt that the fear of having to look at the pox was a greater motivator than the fear of having them on one's own face.

[gastronomo]

Originally Posted by Slithy_Tove

The picture may be ugly, but the vaccine works well. Smallpox was the first disease humans were ever able to eradicate completely from the face of the earth. Not a small achievement. I wear my smallpox scar proudly.

I hope it stays eradicated.

I hope so too, because our 36+ yr old vaccinations are no longer protecting even us from an outbreak.
""Thus, even those who received the recommended single-dose vaccination as children do not have lifelong immunity"
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/281/22/2127

But they still do vaccinate in Taiwan, why is that?

[xoxoxoBruce]

But they still do vaccinate in Taiwan, why is that?

They're afraid we'll mistake them for Injuns.

Wecome to the Cellar, gastronomo.

[Sundae]

I have a big "pock" on my arm from some kinda vaccination. I'll take a picture of it when I can figure out a good angle to show it off.