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medpundit |
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Saturday, April 05, 2003Of the 18 contacts who developed smallpox, those who had ever been vaccinated survived after mild to moderate illnesses. One severely ill 84-year-old man who had been vaccinated once in infancy also survived. Using a vaccine fully active in others, I vaccinated the exposed unvaccinated nurses. But by then it was over a week since possible exposure, and these vaccinations did not take. Presumably during the smallpox incubation period, the more virulent variola virus had already induced enough interferon to prevent vaccinia infection. Previous vaccination protects well against severe or fatal illness, but cannot always prevent infection. Vaccination after exposure cannot be relied on, especially in the second half of the incubation period, when interference by the already established variola virus prevents the less virulent vaccinia virus from establishing itself. Interesting. One of the arguments that those against pre-attack smallpox vaccination make is that post-attack vaccination can prevent the already-exposed from developing the infection. Evidently, that isn't necessarily true. posted by Sydney on 4/05/2003 08:51:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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