Woman gets smallpox after sex with soldier
After having sex with a soldier recently vaccinated against smallpox, a young woman in Washington state developed an illness caused by the vaccinia virus used in the shot, US health officials report.
However, “we were quite concerned that she might transmit it to her household contacts,” McCollum said, because one of her roommates had had a kidney transplant. The transplant patient was immunosuppressed and taking a lot of medication. “A vaccinia virus infection, particularly in an immunosuppressed individual, can be very serious and life-threatening,” McCollum noted.
Other cases out there
McCollum noted that there have been other cases of this infection transmitted from smallpox-vaccinated individuals to others. “At CDC, we don’t know about every case of vaccinia that occurs,” she said.
Including this case, the CDC is aware of five similar cases occurring over the past year, she said. “All the cases were women presenting with genital lesions that had had recent sexual contact exposure to military vaccinees.”
In addition to military personnel, others who are vaccinated include some health care workers and laboratory personnel who work with the virus, McCollum said…
