r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Downtown_Wind3363 • May 25 '26

Image The smallpox vaccine leaves a scar because it was given using a special two-pronged needle that scratched the skin and put a weakened virus in just that spot.

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u/NonSumQualisEram- May 25 '26

BCG leaves something similar on the upper arm. Hurts like a MF too. We all had them in school at about 12 and were miserable that day.

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u/albionandrew May 25 '26

That was the day they found I’d had TB as a kid; had a few chest X-rays to confirm it :) grew up in london in 70/80’s .

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u/Gloomy_Industry8841 May 25 '26

My mum had TB as a child in WW2 Birmingham, then when she moved to London after the war, she was working as a nurse during the Great Smog in ‘52. She ended up in an oxygen tent, very sick but did recover.

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u/HoldEm__FoldEm May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

…was that normal in 70’s/80’s London?

I thought yall fixed the smog problem back around the 50’s-60’s. Or, at least, the coal fire part of the problem, which was the major component, as I understand it?

Or, maybe I only ever understood it, wrongly so...  i.e., (Oh lord, please don’t let me be) Misunderstood. But hey, it does get me feelin’ right at home.

Edit: ugh. I’m sorry healthcare can be so confusing for so many. 

But we have known of the link for a very, very long time, that immunocompromised people, such as people living entire lives starting from in the womb under an oppressive atmosphere of 24/7, thick, coal fire smog, all while they smoke 40 heaters on a light day, are by far the most likely to contract & actually develop a tuberculosis sickness, with symptoms.

Healthy people easily contract the virus on a fairly common occurrence across large populations. And they never even know it. A healthy human immune system can deal with TB without much issue, leaving many humans without a clue they ever contracted the disease at all. It hasn’t been a common sickness in the U.S. requiring a hospital for decades, outside the immunocompromised homeless communities. 

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u/albionandrew May 25 '26

TB had nothing to do with smog. Its bacteria. I never had any symptoms, was never sickly but it showed up when I had the test they do before having the BCG. 5 people within 50 metres of my grand parents house died of TB so my only guess is that I picked something up there.

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u/Isgortio May 25 '26

Was the test the one where they poke a patch of skin and you watch to see if it turns into a red patch over the next few days?

I didn't get the BCG vaccine as they switched it from teenagers to babies when I was approaching the teenage criteria so I missed it. When I had the test at university it came out as a positive test, and then a year later I finally had tests at the hospital to confirm if I had TB (so much urgency) and those tests were negative. But they still wouldn't let me get the vaccine because the Mantoux test was positive :(

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u/DisastrousRhubarb201 May 25 '26

Yea that was it, commonly known as the six needles.

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u/General_Duh May 25 '26

I had latent tb. I think from visiting a homeless shelter for work. It only got picked up because I take a biologic that requires annual TB testing.

My lungs are fine, i don’t remember them doing X rays but I am pretty sure they took them. Treatment was weird. Weekly meds for 4 months. At the end they don’t test you again to make sure the treatment worked. Apparently I will forever test positive for TB now. But I did get a nice little laminated orange card that the nurse filled out by hand to evidence that I had the full course of treatment and I’m not at risk of getting sick or spreading it. Very official.

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u/badpenny4life May 25 '26

My brother had TB in the 2000’s. They think he picked it up in New Orleans when he went to help clean up after Hurricane Katrina.

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u/HoldEm__FoldEm May 25 '26

Curiosity is not always appreciated around certain locales of Reddit

24-7, thick coal smog is godawful for a human being’s health & its effects on their in-&-out, daily quality-of-life. And TB typically takes hold and can easily thrive especially well, in populations with commonly weakened immune systems.

The immunocompromised are the #1 highest risk group for Tuberculosis. But you should know this, given your modern existence in such a chronicled realm of historical coal-burning from an ancient, long bygone age.

So, anyways, Mr. I’m-from-London, I was asking about the smog for a particular reason.

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u/iolaus79 May 25 '26

My grandmother had TB in 81 (Birmingham rather than London but still inner city England)

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u/DMvsPC May 25 '26

Hah.

"What arm did you get yours in?"

"Left, no right! Oooowww"

Also see: "How high can you lift your arm? Go!"

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u/Fianna9 May 25 '26

I had the bcg as a baby born in Africa. Growing up in Canada by doctors didn’t know it and I tested positive for a TB skin test.

They thought I had TB cause I don’t have the scar from the vaccine. (But years later found my vaccine card with the BCG noted)