As a child, the narrator noticed a strange scar on their mother\u2019s arm but forgot about<\/p>\n
it until seeing the same mark years later on an elderly woman.<\/p>\n
The explanation was unexpected: it came from \u201cthe smallpox vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smallpox was a devastating disease that \u201ckilled about 30% of those infected\u201d and left many survivors scarred.<\/p>\n
Through worldwide vaccination efforts, it became \u201cthe first disease ever eradicated,\u201d<\/p>\n
with the World Health Organization declaring victory in 1980. Routine vaccination in the U.S. ended in 1972.<\/p>\n
The vaccine was distinctive. It used \u201ca bifurcated needle,\u201d pricking the skin to deliver a live but less dangerous virus called vaccinia.<\/p>\n
A blister would form, scab, and heal, leaving \u201cthe distinctive circular scar recognized around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, few people still carry the mark. For those who do, it remains \u201ca visible reminder\u201d of one of medicine\u2019s greatest achievements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a child, the narrator noticed a strange scar on their mother\u2019s arm but forgot about it until seeing the same mark years later on an elderly woman. The explanation was unexpected: it came from \u201cthe smallpox vaccine.\u201d Smallpox was a devastating disease that \u201ckilled about 30% of those infected\u201d and left many survivors scarred….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":792,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}