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Indiana boy recovering from infection tied to father's smallpox vaccination

Infection Control Monitor, April 13, 2007

The two-year-old Indiana boy who became ill after exposure to his soldier father's smallpox vaccination is recovering and is expected to be upgraded from critical condition soon, reported The Chicago Tribune.

The boy has been treated in the University of Chicago hospital's pediatric intensive care unit for the last month after he contracted the rare, life-threatening infection. He has eczema vaccinatum, a condition he developed after coming in contact with his father, who had recently been vaccinated for smallpox before he was to be deployed overseas by the U.S. Army.

Physicians have relied on some untested measures to save the child's life, including skin grafts and an experimental drug that has never been used to treat a human patient, the Tribune reported. Doctors said the boy will remain isolated in a special intensive care room as long as he has infectious pox lesions.

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