Common appearances after Vaccination

Categories: Infectious Diseases

For a day or two nothing unusual
should appear. A few days after that, if it succeeds regularly, the skin

will become red, then a pimple will form, and on the pimple a little

vesicle or blister which may be plainly seen on the fifth or sixth day. On

the eighth day the blister (vesicle) is, or should be, plump, round,

translucent, pearly white, with a clearly marked edge and a depression in

the center; the skin around it for a out half an inch is red and swollen.

This vesicle and the red, inflamed circle about it (called the areola) are

the two points which prove the vaccination to be successful. A rash, and

even a vesicular eruption, sometimes comes on the child's body about the

eighth day, and lasts about a week; he may be feverish, or may remain

quite well. The arm may be red and swollen down as far as the elbow, and

in the adult there will usually be a tender or swollen gland in the

arm-pit, and some disturbance of sleep for several nights. The vesicle

dries up in a few days more, and a crust forms which becomes of a brownish

mahogany color, and falls off from the twentieth to the twenty-fifth day.

In some cases the several appearances described above may be delayed a day

or two. The crust or scab will leave a well-marked, permanent scar.