Day 4: Smallpox

WARNING: The following has potentially boring educational material.

Smallpox was a previously devastating disease that killed millions of people up until the late 20th century. Smallpox is caused by a virus. This virus causes a reddish rash that then forms into widespread blisters. It is estimated that 20-60% of all people who contracted the disease died (up to 80% for infants). It was discovered that those who had been infected by the virus and survived, were unable to catch the disease later on in life. This led to the practice of grinding up the scabs from the rash of one person and having a different person inhale them into their nostrils. Although about 2% of all people who inahled the ground up scabs died, many more survived. This process of variolation was widespread practice in China. Later in the 18th century, a man named Edward Jenner found that milkmaids would get a smallpox-like illness called cowpox that did not cause death. These milkmaids did not seem to contract smallpox later. He experimented on a 8 year old boy by giving him cowpox and then later exposing him to smallpox. The boy survived. Jenner called this process vaccination and led to our modern process of immunization. There was a worldwide vaccination effort in the 1970's that led to eradication of smallpox in the world. Now smallpox only exists in a few laboratories.


Well, the military is concerned about a possible bioterrorism attack and consequently it has a smallpox vaccination program. Yesterday was my day to receive the vaccine. It is given by using a two-pronged needle and pricking the skin 15 times. After about a week a blister forms in the area that then scabs and eventually goes away. At that point you are considered immune from smallpox. I also received my first anthrax immunization. This is actually a quite uncomfortable shot (but I will spare you the details for now).

Sorry about the medical history lesson. This is the price of reading a doctor's blog.

All else is well here in San Diego. I have had a lot of exercise time and have been able to catch up on some sleep. We are scheduled to catch a military flight out to Kansas on Saturday morning.