Survey on Smallpox vaccine

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. Smallpox Vaccine Survey

    • 45
      I have had the vaccine in the past and will get it again if needed.
    • 20
      I have had the vaccine in the past and will not get it again.
    • 31
      I never had the vaccine but will get it if needed.
    • 15
      I never had the vaccine and will not get it.

111 members have participated

I received one when I was six and again when I was 18 in order to enter nursing school. They had a plastic shield with air holes to put over the lesion. It looked like the blister packaging you see today.

My children both received it when they were five. (son b. '70, dtr. b.'68)

I have given hundreds and hundreds of them and the reactions varied from none to raging fever and pain. One poor kid had acne really bad and in scratching he spread the vaccinia to several places on his neck and shoulders. I never heard of any of our patients dying.

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

I had the smallpox vaccine as a young child and I was born November 1951.

I would have it again...if required. Death from something is inevitable. If not the vaccine, you could die from a slip on ice, a slip in the bathtub, die peacefully in your sleep, or worse scenarios could occur. The point is...........NONE of us can escape Death when the time comes for us to take that trip, so do what you can to prolong life because nothing can prolong it beyond your written time of departure anyway. :) :nurse:

nope

Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Med-Surg.

1) Girl asks: "Does anyone have any proof that "the bad guys" actually HAVE any smallpox, or is this all just based on speculation?"

The answer: NOPE. Just guesses and speculations and maybes and what-if's.

2) BR asks: "well, I've got to ask:

if there are inherent problems with the vaccine, which are obvious, why are we still using the same vaccine? Can't it be fixed, attenuated somehow so that it still provides immunity, but the risk factor is less?"

I wondered the same thing myself. Is anyone working on a more modern vaccine for smallpox?

3) According to Business Week, December 23, 2002, a company named Siga Technologies is working with Oregon State University, assisted by a grant from the US military for $1.6 million, to develop a smallpox antiviral drug. Testing will begin in 2003, with possible approval for human use in 2 years.

4) It is "guessed" that those of us who had childhood smallpox vaccines were protected for only 10 years. Who says so? Where is the evidence that, as adults, ANY of us previously protected need to be re-vaccinated? I've seen only guesswork and speculation thus far on this matter--based on NO evidence. Couldn't a titer be drawn to find out? Why is none of this being officially or publicly discussed?

5) People are being asked (and some are being ordered) to take a risk that may be totally unnecessary. This all seems like very shoddy public health policy to me. I'm wondering whether the policy would be different if the FIRST people to have mandatory vaccinations were all the members of Congress and all presidential advisors, cabinet members, etc. (And yes, I know that Bush has said he would be vaccinated. He also said that his family members and staff would NOT be receiving the vaccine.)

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

My family will never let me forget my getting "vaccinated" back in 1961, when I was 6. It was reqired for school and getting it was considered a right of passage back then. Anyway .... I hated to get any kind of shot and my parents feared that I would make a big fuss. So, Mom promised that if was very good about, I could go to Murphy's 5 & 10 Cent Store and by ANYTHING I wanted. (Murphy's was the closest thing we had in town to a toy store.)

Mom anticipated that she would have to spend a fortune and buy a huge stuffed animal, an expensive game, or the latest "Barbie" extravagance. However, I chose a $1.98 miniature broom -- because I thought it would be cool to clean the fireplace with!

My older siblings have teased me about that to this day.

llg

I certainly am not against vaccinations, but I have to say I'm glad my children are not babies now...there is so much more evidence/discussion of the possible side effects and harmful effects, the mercury content in some of them, etc, that I think the decisions I made just 13 and 15 years ago would be fraught with much more anguish now than they were then. PLUS, we are immunizing for SO many more things! How many shots does the average infant receive now? Almost TNTC last time I looked!

Not to put any of us on the level of our pet population, but the vaccinosis issue has been a pretty hot topic in that field lately...and there is evidence now being accepted that we may have overdone it with boosters, etc....and titre checks are available now as an alternative to just going ahead every year or three years, etc, and giving boosters. Food for thought...if we can titre check our pets, can't we titre check our people?

If any of you run across discussions of titre assays and vaccine improvement, I'd be very interested to read that info. I've been reading the CDC website info; perhaps I'll run across it there yet. (website is http://www.bt.cdc.gov)

I'm only 27, so I never received the vaccine. And unless I felt the threat of a small pox epidemic was imminent, I wouldn't receive it. To me, the risks of the vaccine weigh more than the "what-if's" of small pox.

Heather

I'm also 27, but I would get it if needed. I'm just not gonna be first in line...

Kristy

Sounds like alot of people would get it, but don't want to be the first one. Who do you all suggest should get it first?

Heather

I got one as a child. Wasn't that one good for lifetime?

They think that they were good for 10 years azgirl. I never had it and won't be getting it until there is some evidence that it could be used as a weapon.

I imagine it would be hard for them to develop a new vaccine because the only way to see if it works is to have people exposed to the real virus.

No one is certain how many people will be hurt by the vaccine. A 1969 study found that, out of every one million people vaccinated, 74 will suffer serious complications, and at least one will die.
That's .000074%.

I read an article a few days ago (I'll have to find the exact source, but it was a medical/nursing reference) that stated 12 of every 100,000 women have serious complications, including death, from pregnancy.

That's .00012%.

Just trying to keep the risk in perspective.

It's still a MUCH higher risk than from any of the vaccines we use today and I have mothers who are terrified of giving them to their babies (especially the MMR). There is an article on another thread that says one study taken at the same time found 823 serious reactions per million. Plus when no one can say there is a real risk of getting small pox, I can't see lining up to get the vaccine. Last year we were all terrified about Anthrax. The year before it was the West Nile virus. Before that it was mad cow. Small pox is just the latest fear that sells newspapers.

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