Immunizations and me

This is a really strange title for a Blog, but what could you expect from a grandpa who is a doctor?

I thought it appropriate since there is an outbreak of measles going around in the country right now. 

I grew up when there were only a few immunizations available as compared to the present time. 

When I was about six months old I got scarlet fever. The mortality rate for this disease in infants of one year or less was 20% at the time. In addition the complication of rheumatic fever was high. If one contracted rheumatic fever there was also a chance that it would result in heart disease with scarring of the heart valves. Especially the mitral valve. 

Scarlet fever is a result of an infection with group A streptococcus that contains an erythrogenic toxin. This causes the typical sandpaper rash of the disease. 

When I first came to Lander to practice, a cardiologist from Casper, Brendan Phibbs, instituted a strep eradication program in the state of Wyoming. We would have all the schools routinely do throat swabs and send them to the state lab. Any positive cultures were then treated with long acting penicillin and recultured after a month. We thus eliminated the asymptomatic strep carriers and reduced the cases of rheumatic fever to zero over the course of a few years. Every child in school who was ill with a sore throat was cultured on their return back to school. There is no immunization for this disease. 

I got all the “childhood diseases”. I got measles, mumps, chickenpox, German measles and whooping cough.  I was immunized for smallpox and carried a yellow card with me on my mission to Germany. At that time no one could come into the United States unless they had proof that they had been immunized for smallpox. I still have the scar from that and your grandmother does as well.

When I left practice in 1996 there had been no cases of smallpox in the United States since 1949 and they had stopped immunizing for smallpox. It was no longer a threat. 

My aunt Mable got smallpox and had a scarred pox marked face for the rest of her life. She was fortunate enough to avoid any more serious complications. 

My grandfather’s brother Charles got measles when he was 4 years old and as a result was deaf for the rest of his life. 

There are a number of family members of Lysander Gee buried in the Tooele cemetery who died of Diphtheria. Now we have a vaccination for it.  Fortunately I did not get the disease. 

When we visited Donetsk Ukraine. There were two patients in the ICU on ventilators.  They had diphtheria. 

I saw a case of tetanus when I was in my internship in Ogden. Marion Joseph Kerr, my great grandfather, got tetanus when he was kicked by a horse. He nearly died. I also took care of a patient with paralytic poliomyelitis. Now we have immunizations for the disease. 

We have immunizations to prevent many diseases. My grandchildren and their posterity can avoid the illnesses that I had by receiving immunizations. 

Grandpa says get your shots or oral vaccine and save your self from illness. 

Love, 

Grandpa