A 2-year old boy was diagnosed with a rare, yet life threatening infection that doctors believe he contracted from his dad who got smallpox vaccine.
The virus that causes the infection is not the smallpox virus. It is vaccinia, a similar, yet milder virus that is used in the vaccine to induce immunity against smallpox.
The spread of viruses in a smallpox vaccine from the recipient to someone in close contact is not commonly seen.
The may have been the first and only reported case of such an infection since at least 1990 when the military finished its last program of smallpox vaccination, according to Chicago Tribune.
The boy is suffering eczema vaccinatum, a rare condition implicated by vaccination of smallpox vaccine.
He is being treated at the
University of
Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital with ST-246, an experimental drug for smallpox.
The boy is said to have a history of eczema.
Official guidelines warn that people with eczema should avoid contact with recipients of smallpox vaccine.
The boy developed rash on 80 percent of his body, according to Dr. Madelyn Kahana at the
University of
Chicago, cited by Chicago Tribune.
He needed a ventilator to help breath because of use of powerful pain medications for the lesions.
Smallpox has been already non-existent for a long time.
The vaccine has not been in general use since the 1970s.
But earlier, the military envisioned a possibility of bioterrorism with smallpox virus, prompting the officials to vaccinate 1.2 million military personnel against the disease.
The soldier got the smallpox shot in late January before a scheduled deployment.
The army somehow delayed his departure and he was allowed to visit his family -his son and wife, in mid-February.
Two weeks later, the boy developed rash everywhere on the skin.
Doctors identified the rash as a different form of eczema. They said the boy got the contagious agent from the smallpox vaccine his father received.
The test by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent later confirmed the diagnosis.
The boy's mother also developed a condition related to smallpox, but her condition is much milder.
For more information, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
