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[–] 85 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (26 children)

Ok, if I tell you all what it is, promise not to call me old.

I promise not to call you oldPolio smallpox or tuberculosis vaccine scar.

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  • [–] 70 points 3 weeks ago* (11 children)

    Polio vaccine scar

    smallpox or tuberculosis

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  • [–] 20 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Oh sweet. If I misidentified it, maybe that means I'm not as old as I thought.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    smallpox

    TB doesnt cause the scar like that. the tuberculin test causes a swelling, to determine if you have been infected with TB, or if you are a foreigner who had BCG vaccine.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 weeks ago* (3 children)

    No. BCG scar, which was developed as a TB vaccine. It is only efficacious in some forms of infant TB, though.

    Smallpox innoculation scars are smaller, among other things.

    Source, tb vaccine research career.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    BCG definitely did leave a scar. We all had to get vaccinated again (the entire school) when my GCSE art teacher got TB and coughed all over everyone instead of staying at home. I had the skin test that showed I already had immunity, when most of the others had to have the BCG. I remember the nurse making me go behind a screen to take off my shirt so she could check for my BCG scar.

    I don't have the scar anymore. But it was there during my younger years.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Oof. The skin test is not reliable. Either is revaccinating. But, they didn't have good data on either for a long time. Not fun.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago

    I've had the skin test three times, I think. I had it once as an outpatient, and then the routine one at school, and then the time the teacher got it. All came back negative.

    I had the BCG as an infant and my dad had TB before he married by mum, I don't know if immunity is hereditary, but the nurses did ask about it. For some reason they were baffled by me not needing it.

    I checked in better lighting and there is still a faint scar on my left arm, but I can't say for sure it's the BCG one.

    I don't think anyone at school actually got TB from the teacher (I doubt they'd have announced it anyway). But most of the kids in my year did get the jab, I was one of the few who didn't. I don't get how she didn't have the BCG already though. She was British so I'm assuming she was raised here. This was in 1998 and she was in her 20s or 30s.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 weeks ago (13 children)

    why did the vaccine cause such a huge scar? was it not an injection?

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  • [–] 59 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Within three to four days, a red, raised and itchy spot develops at the vaccination site. This is a sign of “a take,” which means the vaccine is doing its job. This spot soon turns into a pus-filled blister that gradually gets a little bigger by day 10. Then, it slowly starts to dry out. As the blister heals, a scab develops. This is a normal part of your skin’s healing process. By 14 to 21 days after vaccination, the scab falls off. In its place, a small, pitted scar remains.

    https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/smallpox-vaccine-scar

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  • [–] 42 points 2 weeks ago* (1 child)

    Imagine if the covid vaccine did that, we'd still be in lockdown today lmao.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

    That's the version that killed smallpox too. Earlier vaccines against it were worse, including some that could give you smallpox, even fatally (but you were less likely to get sick from it than from exposure, and you were less likely to get as sick if you got it from the vaccine than naturally catching it). The vaccine was always controversial, but eventually it became safe enough that enough people became comfortable with it being forced on everyone. This is the first disease we developed vaccination for, and for good reason, it was a gross, painful, deadly, and very infectious disease. If it were still around I'd be first in line for a vaccine even with the blister.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

    It was a live vaccine unlike other injections which use dead cells. Part of the reason it made a blister. They carried some risks you don't have with other vaccines.

    Newer smallpox vaccines given to the military no longer cause scars and are much safer. They can be given to immuno compromised individuals.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago

    I still have the scar from it and I got mine in 2008 or so. Mine was not the injectable version, which is safer for immunocompromised. Mine was the mini fork they stabbed you with a few times to perforate the skin area. It itched so much.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago

    I was reading that article and thinking, wait, isn’t this just the futuristic medicine shown in Star Trek that cures all illnesses? Then at the bottom:

    The term "hypospray", although better known from its usage in the 1960s television show Star Trek, is attested in the medical literature as early as 1956.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago

    I remember my dad telling me about that when he joined the army. He said they had to line up like cattle and go down a line, and they were multiple guys with those injector guns on both sides of you and you'd get hit in both arms as you went.

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