Proof that vaccination works...

[kidshop]

I'm thinking this one will require boosters for adults who never had the disease; only the vaccine given as a child...just b/c it is so dangerous for an adult. It's no big deal (just like tetanus), I just hope they keep up with it.

 

[Arielle22]

Since 1995? Then what the heck was that shot I got in school umpteen years ago? I remember someone comparing it to a gun - and if you look on my arm now (at 62) you can still make out the "clusters" of needle holes in a perfect circle.. Was that the smallpox vaccine?

Don't know if I ever had chicken pox.. My mother couldn't remember and I've never seen any pox marks/scars on me like I've seen on other people..

You're right though.. Those are some pretty hard statistics to argue..

I think that was the small pox vaccination. My sister born in 1974 doesn't have it but the siblings born 1959-1969 do.

Both my daughters got the vaccine. I had chicken pox when I was only a few months old. My mom said it was the worst thing she ever saw, that I had them down my throat as well as on my body.

A neighboring child I played with got chicken pox when she was in her early teens. She badly scarred her face by scratching. That was another reason I didn't want my daughters to come down with chicken pox.

 

[YodaGirl]

Since 1995? Then what the heck was that shot I got in school umpteen years ago? I remember someone comparing it to a gun - and if you look on my arm now (at 62) you can still make out the "clusters" of needle holes in a perfect circle.. Was that the smallpox vaccine?

Don't know if I ever had chicken pox.. My mother couldn't remember and I've never seen any pox marks/scars on me like I've seen on other people..

You're right though.. Those are some pretty hard statistics to argue..

That was the smallpox vaccine. My parents both have a scar from it. They said it scabbed up like nothing else.

Not sure when they discontinued it, but I'm 30, and didn't have to get it. I was too old for the Chicken Pox vaccine. It came out a little over 5 years after I got the chicken pox.

I had a pretty bad case of the chicken pox - in my nose, in my throat...everywhere. Talk about miserable! Thankfully, I don't have any scars from it.

 

[C.Ann]

I think that was the small pox vaccination. My sister born in 1974 doesn't have it but the siblings born 1959-1969 do.

Both my daughters got the vaccine. I had chicken pox when I was only a few months old. My mom said it was the worst thing she ever saw, that I had them down my throat as well as on my body.

A neighboring child I played with got chicken pox when she was in her early teens. She badly scarred her face by scratching. That was another reason I didn't want my daughters to come down with chicken pox.

That was the smallpox vaccine. My parents both have a scar from it. They said it scabbed up like nothing else.

Not sure when they discontinued it, but I'm 30, and didn't have to get it. I was too old for the Chicken Pox vaccine. It came out a little over 5 years after I got the chicken pox.

I had a pretty bad case of the chicken pox - in my nose, in my throat...everywhere. Talk about miserable! Thankfully, I don't have any scars from it.

Thanks.. I remember that shot being very nasty - especially for someone terrified of shots to begin with.. (Long over that now though - thank goodness..)

DD was the last in our household to get the chicken pox (no vaccine available when my kids were little) and she had a really severe case too: up her nose; down her throat; in her ears; all around her eyes - it was horrible.. Luckily though she only has a few scars - but none on her face.. On the down side, every time you turn around she's had shingles for the past 4 or 5 years - at least.. Not fun..

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

That was the smallpox vaccine. My parents both have a scar from it. They said it scabbed up like nothing else.

Not sure when they discontinued it, but I'm 30, and didn't have to get it. I was too old for the Chicken Pox vaccine. It came out a little over 5 years after I got the chicken pox.

I had a pretty bad case of the chicken pox - in my nose, in my throat...everywhere. Talk about miserable! Thankfully, I don't have any scars from it.

Yep...small pox vaccines are GROSS...DH had one before he deployed...the blister on his arm was contagious as was the scab and the bandaids he used to cover it...Nasty stuff.

 

[golfgal]

Okay, not to haggle, but the CDC does not say you have to get the vaccine and get chicken pox. It says OR gotten the vaccine, not AND. We took DS to 2 different doctors to confirm shingles, and he's never had the chicken pox.

Only someone who has had chickenpox – or,rarely, has gotten chickenpox vaccine – can get shingles. The virus stays in your body,and can cause shingles many years later.

Ok, not to haggle but we are saying the SAME THING....I didn't say you have to get the shot and chicken pox to get the shingles, I said if you get the shot and have chicken pox you can get shingles and that it is VERY RARE to get shingles from having just the shot. I would also bet, however, that your son did have chicken pox, but just a few. I wouldn't have even noticed my kids' chicken pox if DD hadn't shown me the bump. They didn't itch, they didn't get big like regular chicken pox. They looked like bug bites, just a bunch of them.

 

[Callie]

I got the pox before I was old enough to be vacinated! I was only a couple months old when I came down with them, couldn't even itch them! Thankfully I don't remember them.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Im not anti-vaccine

But this is one that I delayed.

I find it funny how when it first came out, They needed one shot at around a year, then it was they needed one around one and one at kindergarten or if delayed only one at kindergarten. Now you need two no matter when you get it.

I believe that in the beginning, they did not realize that a booster would be required. There are several immunizations that are given a booster or are given in series.

 

[tar heel]

The smallpox vaccination was not really a shot and didn't hurt. It was more a pin prick or scratch than a shot -- a little more than a TB test but not much. The aftermath wasn't so great, however, as you got a great big scab that sometimes got infected -- mine did. They were always given on the left arm for some reason -- that's how I learned left from right. They were a rite-of-passage for going to school, so were exciting and scary at the same time.

Would you like to hear about everyone going to the school on Sunday afternoon for the first polio vaccines?

I sound so OLD!

 

[mebbradley]

Yep...small pox vaccines are GROSS...DH had one before he deployed...the blister on his arm was contagious as was the scab and the bandaids he used to cover it...Nasty stuff.

Yeah....Two out of the three guys that live in DF's house had that vaccine in the last two months [everyone except DF]. It's gross! I honestly was like EWW. Don't come near me and those band-aides stay downstairs in that bathroom.

 

[C.Ann]

Would you like to hear about everyone going to the school on Sunday afternoon for the first polio vaccines?

I sound so OLD!

Our entire family was whisked into the doctors office during the night - as soon as the hospital confirmed that my sister had polio.. That was a very scary time.. All family members, cousins, etc., had to receive shots ASAP - and those things hurt like the devil! I've heard people complain about tetanus shots (which I've had in the past), but I would take 10 of those over the polio shots we had to get.. Of course I was very little - and terrified of needles then - so that may have made it seem much worse..

 

[snarlingcoyote]

They stopped requiring smallpox sometime around 1970 - 1971, I think. I was born in 1969, but was a sickly baby who had to have all sorts of uncomfortable tests run. My pediatrician was a kind-hearted elderly gentleman who didn't believe in hurting kids unnessarily and told my folks when it was time for my shot as a baby that he was pretty sure it would be taken off the mandatory vaccine list, so they'd just delay it.

So they did, and I never had to take it. All my classmates had the scar, but I didn't and much of the class below me didn't.

 

[C.Ann]

They stopped requiring smallpox sometime around 1970 - 1971, I think. I was born in 1969, but was a sickly baby who had to have all sorts of uncomfortable tests run. My pediatrician was a kind-hearted elderly gentleman who didn't believe in hurting kids unnessarily and told my folks when it was time for my shot as a baby that he was pretty sure it would be taken off the mandatory vaccine list, so they'd just delay it.

So they did, and I never had to take it. All my classmates had the scar, but I didn't and much of the class below me didn't.

That sounds about right.. It's nice that you had a doctor who was so kind and caring..

I read an article a year or two ago that said smallpox shots aren't necessary (at least here in the states) because they've done such a good job of wiping it out almost world-wide.. I was surprised to read hear that someone in the military still had to get it - but I guess that just means it's still "somewhere"..

I wonder when the last officially diagnosed case of smallpox was in the US? Guess I'll google that later - just for the heck of it..

 

[Snow_White]

I'm thinking this one will require boosters for adults who never had the disease; only the vaccine given as a child...just b/c it is so dangerous for an adult. It's no big deal (just like tetanus), I just hope they keep up with it.

Most probably won't though! I wonder what the statistics are on the amount of adults that get tetanus boosters every 10 years like they're supposed to are.

 

[Northstar]

I read an article a year or two ago that said smallpox shots aren't necessary (at least here in the states) because they've done such a good job of wiping it out almost world-wide.. I was surprised to read hear that someone in the military still had to get it - but I guess that just means it's still "somewhere"..

Smallpox is considered wiped out in the wild all over the world, but they keep samples of the virus in some high-secruity labs... just in case.
I believe the military is worried about the possibility of germ warfare.

 

[C.Ann]

Most probably won't though! I wonder what the statistics are on the amount of adults that get tetanus boosters every 10 years like they're supposed to are.

Most new doctors will ask on your first visit - and our experience has been they always ask in the ER.. When I hurt my foot a couple of months ago (no cuts or anything) they asked anyhow..

 

[C.Ann]

Smallpox is considered wiped out in the wild all over the world, but they keep samples of the virus in some high-secruity labs... just in case.
I believe the military is worried about the possibility of germ warfare.

Ah.. Okay.. That makes sense.. Come to think of it, weren't they talking about that shortly after 9/11 - germ warfare with smallpox?

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Ah.. Okay.. That makes sense.. Come to think of it, weren't they talking about that shortly after 9/11 - germ warfare with smallpox?

They all(as far as I know) have to have it. Unless you are pregnant, have small or people with weak immune systems in you household...or have acne...I think the acne is because it can be so contagious that open sores and things can spread it.

 

[rszdtrvl]

I got the chicken pox my junior year of high school. I made SURE that DS got the vaccine as soon as it was recommended to do so.

I had chicken pox EVERYWHERE, and missed a lot of school. It was not fun.

 

[C.Ann]

They all(as far as I know) have to have it. Unless you are pregnant, have small or people with weak immune systems in you household...or have acne...I think the acne is because it can be so contagious that open sores and things can spread it.

Oh I wasn't questioning it you.. I know they have to get shots for all sorts of weird things - things not necessary to the general public.. Isn't there something about malaria too? A vaccine or medication or something of that nature?

So is the fear of acne and it being contagious because it's a live vaccine? I was so young when I had mine - waaaaay too many years ago to remember all the details - just that I was afraid of shots and all those little holes in a perfect circle..

It's a good thing that I eventually outgrew my fear of needles or I would be in a heap of trouble..LOL..