Smallpox vaccine scars: What they look like and why

Instead I called my mother, and she revealed that she in fact told me more than once – obviously my brain didn’t deem the answer important enough information to retain – and that her scar had come courtesy of the famous smallpox vaccine.

Smallpox is a viral, infectious disease that once terrorized us humans. It causes a significant skin rash and fever, and during the most rampant outbreaks in the 20th century, killed an estimated 3 out of 10 victims according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many other sufferers were left disfigured.

Thanks to a successful, widespread implementation of the smallpox vaccine, the virus was declared “extinct” in the United States in 1952. In fact, in 1972, smallpox vaccines ceased to be a part of routine vaccinations.

Up until the early ’70s, though, all children were vaccinated against smallpox, and the vaccinations left behind a very clear mark. Think of it as the very first vaccine passport, if you will: a scar that told everyone you had been successfully vaccinated against smallpox.Continue reading…