Study on volunteers finds pain, flu-like symptoms common
By
Robert Bazell
NBC
NEWS CORRESPONDENT
Dec. 6
—
Tia
Neeley was among the first volunteers to test the smallpox vaccine after
Sept. 11, 2001. A year ago, NBC News reported on her inoculation. “My arm
got pretty sore for about two days, around seven to eight days after
vaccination,” Neeley said. Hers was a mild reaction, but for many it was not
so easy.
10000 B.C.
Smallpox appears in settlements in northeast Africa.
1350 B.C.
The first recorded smallpox epidemic occurs during the
Egyptian-Hittite war when Egyptian prisoners unwittingly spread
the virus among the Hittite population.
1000 B.C.
Variolation, an early form of smallpox inoculation, is developed
in China and India. The process involved taking the pus from the
pocks of someone suffering from the virus and inoculating healthy
people with it. A mild case of smallpox developed, but the process
granted lifelong immunity afterwards. The practice would
eventually spread to Europe and the New World by the 18th century.
180
The Roman Empire is devastated by the Plague of Antonine which
kills millions. The dead include Marcus Aurelius, the reigning
emperor.
570
Bishop Marius of Avenches names the virus, "variola", a derivation
of the Latin word for "stained." The popular term for the virus,
"smallpox", won't come into use in England until the 15th century.
910
Rhazes. a Persian physician, writes the first medical description
of smallpox.
1520
Two years after Spanish conquistadors arrive in Mexico, the Aztec
emperor Ciutlahuac dies of smallpox. Over the next century of
Spanish occupation, Mexico’s population diminishes from an
estimated high of 15 to 20 million in 1518 to 1.6 million by 1620.
The decimation is repeated throughout the New World as Europeans
unknowingly introduce smallpox.
18th century
Smallpox kills four reigning European monarchs including Tsar
Peter II of Russia and King Louis XV of France. Other notable
victims include the king of Ethiopia and a Japanese emperor. By
the last decades of the 18th century an estimated 400,000
Europeans die of smallpox each year.
1754-1767
Smallpox is used as a weapon when British forces distribute
blankets used by smallpox patients to Native American tribes
during the French-Indian war.
1774
Benjamin Jesty, a farmer from the town of Dorset in the United
Kingdom, inoculates his family with material taken from the udders
of cows that had cowpox, a virus similar to smallpox. Medical
reports begin to appear linking smallpox immunity in those
individuals with a previous case of cowpox.
1796
Edward Jenner, a British surgeon, injects the fluid extracted from
a postule of a cowpox victim into a healthy child. Eventually, the
word "vaccine", derived from the medical name of cowpox, "variolae
vaccinae", falls into common usage. Jenner does not invent
vaccination, but he does confer scientific status. By 1800,
Jenner’s efforts to popularize vaccination results in vaccination
campaigns throughout Europe.
1801
President Thomas Jefferson creates the National Vaccine Institute.
1803
Spain begins the first overseas vaccination program when it sends
the vaccine to North and South America.
1967
World Health Organization launches global vaccination campaign
against smallpox.
1972
Routine smallpox vaccination among the American public ends.
1977
Last naturally occurring case of smallpox reported in Somalia.
1980
The World Health Organization recommendeds that all countries
cease vaccination and that all laboratories destroy their stocks
of smallpox or transfer them to the Institute of Virus
Preparations in Moscow, Russia, or the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga. All countries report
compliance. Soviets begin to develop smallpox as a bioweapon.
1982
Vaccine production is discontinued in the United States.
1990
U.S. military discontinues routine vaccinations.
Today
Smallpox vaccinations are generally limited to selected lab
workers and military personnel.
OVER THE past several months,
1,500 volunteers have participated in a study to test the controversial
vaccine’s safety.
Dr. Tom Talbott, who organized one study at Tennessee’s Vanderbilt
University, said scientists also want to find out how much they can dilute
the vaccine and still have it work.
Talbott said everyone who is vaccinated develops a sore on the arm
where it’s injected. About a third experience swelling and redness. And
about 10 percent experience flu-like symptoms.
After receiving a smallpox inoculation, Mark Harris had a fever of
101 degrees.
“For a period of about five to six hours, I was in a lot of pain,
delirious from the fever. I had a lot of trouble just moving around,” Harris
said. He even had to skip a few days of school.
Elizabeth Forrester missed work.
“Severe pain. Pain around the site, swelling, and it was just really
kind of uncomfortable and achy,” Forrester said.
It is not unexpected, but doctors testing the smallpox vaccine are
seeing a lot of reactions in the young, healthy volunteers.
The problem is
that the smallpox vaccine, which is more than 200 years old, is different
from flu shots and other vaccines used today. It is made from a live virus,
closely related to smallpox, which causes an infection on the arm.
The doctors conducting the tests say they were initially worried.
“I think it is unusual to us as physicians because we’re not used to
it,” Talbott said.
But with experience, the physicians say they are feeling more
comfortable giving the vaccine. And the volunteers say the risk and
discomfort are worth the chance to help protect the country from a
terrifying threat.
ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND
MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS
OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"
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What you need to know about smallpox
