Father's smallpox jab puts son in
hospital
A rare reaction
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Monday 19th March 2007
A two-year old boy is in hospital today having become critically
ill after his father received a smallpox vaccination.
According to reports, the boy's father is a US soldier, who was was
due to deploy to Iraq, but was unexpectedly kept home after having
his vaccination. Doctors say the child must have touched the site
of the vaccination - a closely related virus is scratched into the
surface of the skin - and has developed a potentially fatal
response called eczema vaccinatum.
Although the disease has been eradicated since 1979, the US resumed
its vaccination programme in 2002, in response to the fears that
someone could use the virus as a biological weapon. Military
personnel and around 40,000 civilian health workers have been given
the jab.
This is the first case of eczema vaccinatum since then, according
to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
CDC pox virus expert Dr. Inger Damon told Reuters that the two-year
old had been treated with immune globulin, cidofovir (an antiviral)
and SIGA-246, (an experimental antiviral). She said the CDC was
"cautiously optimistic" about the child's progress.
The smallpox vaccine is notorious for its very serious side
effects, but the CDC says that the screening process is much better
now. Anyone at a high risk of a dangerous response - such as the
eczema vaccinatum - is not given the jab. This has helped keep bad
reactions to a minimum.
Eczema vaccinatum has a mortality rate of around 18 per cent, the
CDC says, as compared to around 30 per cent for the smallpox virus
itself.
