ProMED Digest V2002 #293

[Homoeopathy]

Subject: Re: PRO> ProMED Digest V2002 #293

SMALLPOX VACCINATION HAZARDS (03)
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Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 09:27:19 EDT
From: Ed Regis
Regarding the claim in the previous posting (reference below) that: >

An interesting historical note is that during the early days of
vaccination (while Jenner was still alive), the problem of keeping live
stocks of the vaccine was solved by transferring the vaccine from one
recipient to the next. As explained by Jonathan B. Tucker in his book
"Scourge: The Once and Future threat of Smallpox" (New York: Atlantic
Monthly Press, 2001), p. 29:

"One solution to the problem was to keep the vaccine 'alive' by
transferring it from one human recipient to the next, a practice known
as the arm-to-arm technique. First, an individual was vaccinated, and as
soon as the cowpox pustule had appeared on his or her arm, matter from
the lesion was then used to vaccinate other recipients. In 1801 in St.
Petersburg, Russia, for example, a recently vaccinated girl was sent to
a local orphanage to serve as the source of smallpox vaccine for all
children more than a week old. From then on, the orphanage continuously
transferred the vaccine from one child to another for more than
ninety-two years (1801-93)."

The author goes on to note the hazards of the arm-to-arm method: It
could "contaminate the vaccine with dangerous pathogens, resulting in
inadvertent spread of hepatitis or syphilis. In 1861, for example, 41
Italian children who had been vaccinated by arm-to-arm transfer acquired
syphilis from a child with an undiagnosed case of the disease." (p. 33)
- --
Ed Regis, Ph.D.
College Fellow
McDaniel College
Westminster, Maryland 21157


[Thanks to Dr. Regis for this historical reminder, and for the
additional information that other diseases could also be transmitted
through arm-to-arm transfer of the vaccine. - Mod.MPP]

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