Boy Recovers From Smallpox Vaccine Exposure

An Indiana boy has recovered from a nearly fatal viral infection he suffered after his military father received a smallpox vaccination, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, April 9).

Both the boy and his father suffered from eczema prior to the vaccination, a condition that should have triggered military doctors to refrain from vaccinating the father, health experts said.  Eczema patients are more susceptible to side effects from the vaccine.

Admitted March 3 to a Chicago hospital, the 2-year-old spent seven weeks in the hospital, where he was quarantined with his mother who also developed less severe symptoms.

The boy’s dire condition alarmed physicians. He was covered with “mounds of pox,” said Madelyn Kahana, chief of pediatric intensive care medicine at University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital. 

“I’m a veteran of 25 years of practice in the ICUs, and I thought I’d seen it all,” she said. “But this was stunning to the eye.”

As a result of the illness, diagnosed as eczema vaccinatum, the boy lost most of skin but has recovered to show few signs of his earlier condition, Kahana said.

His recovery came thanks to “a lot of good, diligent care and lot of luck — and maybe divine intervention,” she said.

Doctors received permission from the Food and Drug Administration to use an experimental drug for smallpox, the Times reported.

The boy “doesn’t remember a thing,” Kahana added.  “His mom remembers it all” (John Schwartz, New York Times, May 18).

The boy’s disease was the first reported case of eczema vaccinatum since 1988, according to a summary of the incident released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, May 18).

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