General Chat

When I was five I was very ill with a disease which my parents always told me was Stevens-Johnson disease.

I was in isolation for about a month. The symptom were a severe rash which went into scabs, quite close together, probably mainly on my face and trunk and I still have the scars, mainly on my shoulders. It was cured by penicillin, which at the time (1951) was quite new.

The descriptions I have seem recently for Stevens-Johnson are nothing like that, comprising severe blisters and bleeding in the mucous membranes of the lips, eyes, mouth, nasal pasage and genitals.

My symptoms seem much closer to those of smallpox, so how could the diseases get mixed up like that?

Things do get misdiagnosed, and diseases over the years may be moved into a new family of diseases. In your case it could have been a blanket name for a single disease at the time, but nowadays, with better research, is probably categorised into the worst type of that family of viral rash...

I wouldn't have thought it was smallpox, not even in the 50's, though I stand to be corrected, But with pasteurised milk and vaccination I thought that had been wiped out years before.

(You sure it wasn't chickenpox? Penicillin was given for lots of things back then)

The symptoms you have described for the disease you had sounds just like Chickenpox which I had around the same age as yourself..
I had penicillin for Chickenpox also..


Sue

The rash caused by Stevens-Johnson syndrome varies in severity and distribution so it is quite possible for the rash to only affect the skin on the face and trunk, and for mucous membranes to escape involvement.

Brian,
Maybe next time you see your GP you could mention it to him / her and ask what was written in your notes.


Gwyn

That is interesting, Edward.

Gwyn, do you think that my notes from 60 years agp will still be on file?

I seem to remember that smallpox was around in the 50s but I think it was late 50s, I remember having a booster jab because my then fiance now my OH had been in contact with people from the area it was in as he was in the RN.

BrianW, regarding whether your GP notes from 60 years ago will still be on file, they could be if they haven't been lost. All of my early medical records from childhood are missing, they seem to have been lost when I moved about the country and changed GPs.

Small pox must have still been around in the sixties... I went overseas in 1964 and had to have a small pox vaccination before travelling so some countries must still have had it then.

My chicken-pox must've been milder... I have no scars from it.... but it would have been more than my life's worth to pick one of my scabs. My eldest does have one little indent on her forehead where she picked a scab.

Persie (Wonder where old medical records do end up)

My son was born overseas in 70s and he had a smallpox vaccination when he was very young.

Gwyn

Dau born here in 1958 and it was mandatory to have smallpox injection. GP did it on her hip in case she would ever wear a bikini!!!!

In the 50s I had the smallpox vaccination as did all of my year in school.

Sue

Brian
I think if you had chicken pox then you wouldn't have been kept in isolation for so long.
Families were often of the thought that 'they might as well catch it while they're young' and often encouraged children to mix with others who had childhood infections, so they could get it 'over and done with'.
..........not sound thinking, as it didn't always work out that way, but it was a common idea.
I'd be wanting to find out, if I was you !

Gwyn


Gwyn

On google - last incident of 2 cases of smallpox in UK was in 1978. In 1950 several outbreaks. Last in S Wales in 1962.