New small pox shot, can it cause right axis deviation?

Umm… what?

Why the hell would you have a smallpox shot in the first place?

I’m not sure about a “new” small pox shot, but here is what the CDC says about the old one. It does say “persons receiving smallpox vaccine should be aware that myopericarditis is a potential complication of smallpox vaccination. If vaccinees experience chest pain, shortness of breath, or other symptoms of cardiac disease after vaccination they should seek medical attention. In addition, heart pain (angina) and heart attack also have been reported following smallpox vaccination, however, it is not known if smallpox vaccination caused these problems or if they occurred by chance alone.”

I did read that there was a new one being developed and put in a stockpile, but I’ve never read anything about it being administered to anyone yet. It’s called Imvamune. This article contains the only informations I could find about adverse reactions for Imvamune. It does mention cardiac issues, but not specifically a right axis deviation. From my understanding, it’s made specifically for people that are immunocompromised so that they may have fewer side effects.

Your best bet is to talk to your doctor (the one that gave you the shot) about what happened. If it is indeed related to the vaccination, he needs to report it.

From my understanding of right axis deviation, it is most often a congenital defect. It’s normal for some individuals because of the position of their heart in their chest. Upon further reading here, it says that chronic pulmonary disease can also be a cause of it.

They stopped giving this shot in 1969–70. So, why are you getting a new one? And the reason they stopped is that more people were having complications than were able to catch the disease, so they stopped it. So, you might want to check and find out with the CDC if there are complications associated with the “new” shot. I was quite surprised to learn that there are whole departments whose sole aim is to work with people from complications of various shots that are administered to the pubic.

@skfinkel There are still some people that get the smallpox vaccine. My husband was one of them. He got his in December 2009 right before he left to go to Iraq. Just about any soldier that goes overseas for a deployment has to get one.

If you’ve had chest pain and a new right axis deviation (do you or your hospital have an old EKG to compare?) then you need to consider getting a second opinion. If you look down the list of causes of right axis deviation you’ll note that there are two at the bottom of the list that would be associated with chest pain, namely, lateral wall myocardial infarction (a heart attack) and right heart overload from a pulmonary embolus (a blood clot in the lung that strains the right side of the heart). The others listed there would not typically cause acute chest pain. A pulmonary embolus can be missed very often, and an EKG is not the best test, but right axis deviation + chest pain should make any doctor consider the diagnosis. In conclusion, the small pox shot is highly unlikely to be responsible for this. Most likely, it is an “old problem” (many people don’t carry around or have old EKGs) or a new problem unrelated to the shot.

@skfinkel Small pox was eradicated, that is why they stopped. Although it is true people had some bad reactions to the vaccine.

Also, @Seaofclouds is correct that some people still get the vaccine if they are at risk for germ warfare. I don’t know if all military troops receive it if they are deployed, it seems possible.