Toddler Hospitalized After Contracting Infection from Father’s Smallpox Vaccination
March 18th, 2007Extremely ominous. Do I need to add a “Kill Off” category?
Via: Chicago Sun Times:
A 2-year-old boy stricken with a rare infection from the smallpox vaccine is improving but remained in critical condition Saturday at the Comer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago.
The boy was infected by his father, a U.S. soldier who was vaccinated in January in preparation for service in Iraq. But his deployment was delayed, and he returned home to Indiana late last month. His son, who suffers from skin lesions known as eczema, then became infected by vaccinia, a virus similar to smallpox and used in the vaccine against it.
The boy is the first person to suffer from the severe infection, known as eczema vaccinatum, since the U.S. military began inoculating troops in 2002. But his condition is so uncommon that U. of C. experts said they could not find reports of any cases in the United States since before 1972, when routine vaccinations for smallpox were halted.
Only seen in photos
“This is something that is new to us,” said Kenneth Alexander, head of pediatric infectious disease at U. of C.
The boy, whose name was not released, was sent to U. of C. from a northwest Indiana hospital March 3 after he developed a severe rash. He didn’t improve after treatment, and by March 7, a dermatologist noticed his lesions resembled those caused by smallpox — something doctors had only seen in photos because the disease was eradicated.
Doctors contacted the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which agreed to fly in a treatment never used on a child, vaccinia immune globulin (VIG). The drug was hand-delivered by U.S. marshals.
The boy’s condition continued to worsen, and last weekend, his lungs and kidneys began to fail. “He was near death,” said Madelyn Kahana, chief of pediatric critical care medicine. Painful skin lesions covered most of his body.
‘He is slowly improving’
The CDC then asked the Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency permission to try ST-246, an experimental drug being developed to fight smallpox. It had been effective in treating mice and monkeys infected with the virus, said U. of C. pediatrician John Marcinak, who is spearheading the boy’s treatment. But it had never been used on a sick person.
That, combined with VIG and another drug, seems to be working. Since he first got the drug March 11, “he is slowly improving,” Marcinak said.
The boy’s mother contracted a milder form of the vaccinia virus from the boy and has been quarantined in the boy’s room but is recovering well, officials said.
She has cried some days but in general has been “very strong and optimistic,” said Surabhi Vora, a U. of C. fellow who has been assisting in the boy’s treatment.
‘Military has to be careful’
Doctors said the father — who has since returned from his deployment at the hospital’s urging — had no idea he should stay away from his son after receiving the vaccine.
Kahana said the “military has to be careful” in making sure soldiers understand the risks and that they stay away from high-risk populations, such as people with eczema.
“They are trying to figure out where the misstep was,” she said of the military. A military spokesman could not be reached Saturday.
The boy has two siblings, but no one else appears to have been infected, doctors said. The hospital has taken extreme precautions in treating the boy — including keeping him in a room where the air only flows inward. Officials say the general public is not at risk because the infection is only transmitted through close physical contact.
Now doctors are just hoping the boy will make a full recovery. Before the infection worsened, the boy was fairly cooperative and talkative, saying “cup, cup, cup” when he was thirsty, Vora recalled. But since then, the boy has been sedated and is on a ventilator.
“I’m looking forward to seeing him awake and talking,” she said.
i fail to see what the problem with this is. call me naive, could you be more explicit about what this implicates?
A military vaccine given to a soldier winds up infecting his son with a disease that doctors have only seen in reference books.
You fail to see the problem with that?
These crazy bastards make me want to cuss. How can people be so *^&%$#@!% stoopid?
Dear Family with boy with Eczema,
Our heart and prayers go out to you and your family. Keep the faith and have hope. We know because our boy has severe eczema and was on studies since bith at Children’s Memorial in Chicago. My son’s time with having chicken pox was very trying. We can only feel in our hearts what you are going through.
Our prayers,
Munster, Indiana resident
avoidable maladies are always tragic, moreso when they involve our young children. i read this site in large part because it involves stories which proclaim, “the world is on fire, and i know who to blame” in a way that few other sources can or care to do successfully.
it does not seem outside the realm of possibility that someone who was recently vaccinated (with something that potentially contains the live virus) can transmit that disease to someone who has two really big strikes against them with regard to transmission: being very young, and having eczema.
so what’s questionable? not that he was vaccinated. maybe the third paragraph helps, noting that known cases stopped appearing when routine vaccination stopped in 1972, so any doctor with less than 35 yrs experience (in the US) has ever seen it. building immunity to a virus is not risk free. the second paragraph mentions that the child has the *related* virus, vaccinia, which was in the vaccine. maybe something fishy was in that needle? the military doesn’t have a stellar history with the health of their soldiers. i certainly thought gulf war syndrome was an atrocity, and what about giving black dudes the syphilis. this case isn’t an untoward side effect, but the virus contained in the soldier’s shot was transmitted to his son.
is the experimental drug a problem? the article doesn’t discuss treatment options, but they are always limited with young children.
hand delivered by US marshals is weird, you say? well, immune globulin comes from an immune system exposed to the virus, and that virus (so the story goes) is under armed guard at the CDC. so maybe the gov’t wants to give everyone small pox? do they have SARS, west nile, and avian flu where you come from? i don’t really see a motive, in that respect.
or is this just “OMG we have small pox!!!”? or even, “OMG we’ve never seen this shit before!!!”? in which case, go get vaccinated if you’re one of those odd folks who didn’t get it years ago, and thank your stars we “eliminated” things like small pox and polio before the professional lifetimes of our doctors.