Eczema & The Small Pox Vaccine

[plumbago]

Not posting under the DH forum because of course eczema and DH are different. But wikipedia has just informed me that there is a strong link between people who have celiac disease and eczema. I'm doing a lot of reading on eczema lately - it's amazing how little will there seems to be to experiment and advance the yardsticks on this one. But oh well. Apparently the incidence of eczema is way up in youngsters. I read that that's caused by an overly clean environment and too-warm environs which produce mites. I really cannot comment on whether or not I think that's true.

One thing I did read that I can comment on is that there has apparently been a link between a very bad if not fatal reaction to the small pox vaccine in those who have eczema. What was so frustrating in these (superficial) Internet searches, though, was that at no point did anyone think to talk about those adults who have eczema but as children had the SP vaccine. Like me!!! I had it at one and at 3 years old and again at 6 years old. I'm an adult now of course, but I have eczema.

Has anyone heard about this? The warnings against having the vaccine if you have eczema were strong to very strong.

On another note, I would like to take the opportunity to recommend Hylatopic Plus for those suffering from eczema. It's a wonderfully rich emollient that locks moisture in. It's expensive - $25 per canister with insurance and a discount coupon.

Plumbago

[missy'smom]

  On 2/20/2012 at 2:58 AM, plumbago said:

Not posting under the DH forum because of course eczema and DH are different. But wikipedia has just informed me that there is a strong link between people who have celiac disease and eczema. I'm doing a lot of reading on eczema lately - it's amazing how little will there seems to be to experiment and advance the yardsticks on this one. But oh well. Apparently the incidence of eczema is way up in youngsters. I read that that's caused by an overly clean environment and too-warm environs which produce mites. I really cannot comment on whether or not I think that's true.

One thing I did read that I can comment on is that there has apparently been a link between a very bad if not fatal reaction to the small pox vaccine in those who have eczema. What was so frustrating in these (superficial) Internet searches, though, was that at no point did anyone think to talk about those adults who have eczema but as children had the SP vaccine. Like me!!! I had it at one and at 3 years old and again at 6 years old. I'm an adult now of course, but I have eczema.

Has anyone heard about this? The warnings against having the vaccine if you have eczema were strong to very strong.

On another note, I would like to take the opportunity to recommend Hylatopic Plus for those suffering from eczema. It's a wonderfully rich emollient that locks moisture in. It's expensive - $25 per canister with insurance and a discount coupon.

Plumbago

Here's my opinion. People who have eczema have allergies, whether they be environmental or food and the allergies trigger the eczema so those who have this bad reaction to the vaccine may have unknown allergies to the ingredients. Seems to me the standard treatment for eczema is to say here's some cream, use this, that's it. My son's first allergist had eczema herself and just used cream. That says to me that she didn't identify the trigger. I wanted better than to treat symptoms so we got another allergist, did more tests and dietary experiments and identified some triggers, eliminated them and bye bye eczema, no need for the steroidal creams. That first allergist dismissed the test results, didn't believe in their own tests and told me on the side they don't recommend eliminating foods unless anaphylaxis because they think most people can't handle it, but I was already gluten-free at the point and obviously capable. My son went from legs covered in eczema and scratching all night in his sleep to perfectly eczema-free for I don't know how many years now. I think managing his overall allergy load has helped as well-he gets allergy shots for the environmentals.

Your eczema is not caused by the vaccine, that's not what that research is saying, I believe, if that's your concern.

[plumbago]

Thanks MM. What I was reading on the 'net was that there is a key peptide missing in those with eczema -- The lack of a certain peptide in the skin of people with atopic dermatitis--the most common form of eczema--may explain why they are at high risk of adverse reactions to the smallpox vaccine, report scientists in the February Journal of Immunology. The finding may lead to new treatments to allow those with the skin condition to be vaccinated against smallpox without breaking out in a potentially deadly rash.In experiments in test tubes and mice, the researchers found that a germ-killing peptide called LL-37--largely absent from the skin of those with atopic dermatitis--selectively kills vaccinia, the living virus in the smallpox vaccine. The virus is a relatively benign cousin of variola, the virus in smallpox. The researchers believe LL-37 may be a key part of the normal immune response that allows vaccinia to confer immunity for smallpox but stops it before it can replicate and cause harm. - Science Daily

I have eczema - controlled (non existent) intermittently throughout my years, but never will I go back to the steroidal creams - and I did have the SP vaccine. I guess I'm ok, but it was just a bit frustrating not to have read anything on my particular situation on the 'net.

I also believe that there is some environmental trigger. I eliminated all sugar (well, I ate ketchup) for 16 days. It was also a calm time at work. The eczema which so unusually had been with me since September, started to abate (I was also using hylatopic plus). So I could not tell if it was the lack of sugar or the lack of stress or the hylaptopic. So I added sugar back in while it was still a calm time at work. Knock on wood, so far ok.

I've wracked my brains thinking what it could have been. I began eating millet in October, but if it started in September, that's not it. Then I went back and found I had eaten some Brazilian cheese bread in September. This is normally made with non wheat flour, but the place where I ate it used wheat flour, I learned later. I had eaten it for about three or four days straight. Could that have been it? Who knows? But yes, environmental triggers exist. I did not have eczema at all in 2010.

[psawyer]

Smallpox? That disease was declared eradicated more than thirty years ago. Any increase in the incidence of eczema today is unrelated.

[plumbago]

  On 2/20/2012 at 3:39 PM, psawyer said:

Smallpox? That disease was declared eradicated more than thirty years ago. Any increase in the incidence of eczema today is unrelated.

I did not say that the small pox vaccine causes eczema.

I began by wondering that if based on what I am reading - that people with eczema should not get the small pox vaccine - is true, what happens to those of us who have eczema but as infants and children got the small pox vaccine?

(BTW, I also stated the reasons I've been able to glean for the more recent increases in eczema.)

Plumbago