It’s very easy to understand why some folks believe that vaccine injuries are so common.
It’s because they think that vaccines are poison and everything is a vaccine injury, even an infant’s herpes infection!
Can Vaccines Cause Herpes Infections?
Wait, could someone actually get herpes from a vaccine?
Do we even have a herpes vaccine?
As most people understand, we do have a herpes zoster vaccine, but that is for shingles – and it has nothing to do with the actual herpes virus. Remember, shingles got the name herpes zoster before it was known that it was actually caused by the chicken pox virus (varicella zoster).
And while there is a very large herpesviridae family of viruses, which includes the herpes simplex virus that causes cold sores (HSV1) and genital ulcers (HSV2) and the chickenpox virus, it also includes viruses that cause mono (EBV) and roseola (HHV6 and 7).
Still, only HSV actually causes herpes.
So no, none of the viruses we get could actually cause herpes.
It is thought that nearly 48% of people have HSV1 though and that you can be contagious, shedding the herpes virus even if you don’t have an active cold sore.
So what’s more likely, an infant was exposed to someone with HSV1 and got infected or they received a vaccine that was contaminated with HSV1, something that has never been documented?
What are some other “possibilities?”
Could it be eczema vaccinatum?
While eczema vaccinatum is a thing, it is a thing that occurs when someone with eczema gets or is exposed to someone who has recently had the smallpox vaccine.
It is why the AAP once considered eczema a contraindication to getting vaccinated.
It is unlikely that the infant pictured above was exposed to someone who recently had the smallpox vaccine though and he doesn’t have eczema vaccinatum anyway…
And no matter how confident these folks are in their advice to treat and diagnose this baby, they are wrong.
Everything isn’t a vaccine injury.
What happens if parents actually start to believe anti-vaccine folks who are claiming that HSV1 infections are caused by vaccines?
In addition to skipping or delaying vaccines, putting their kids at risk to get pertussis, measles, Hib, and other vaccine-preventable diseases, they might not take precautions to actually keep them from getting herpes!
And we will see more kids ending up in the hospital or dying with herpes infections.
More on Vaccines and Eczema
- Can Vaccines Cause Eczema?
- Should I Be Worried That My Kids Didn’t Get the Smallpox Vaccine?
- Are Fewer Than 1% of Vaccine Injuries Reported to VAERS?
- About That 4 Billion Dollars Taxpayers Have Paid for Vaccine Injuries…
- More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic
- Eibhlín’s Little Story
- Kisses That Kill … What’s A Parent To Do?
- Prevalence of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 and Type 2 in Persons Aged 14–49: United States, 2015–2016
- Herpes Simplex Virus in the Newborn
- AAP – Cold Sores in Children: About the Herpes Simplex Virus
- Herpes & Pregnancy
- Barnsley mum: Neonatal herpes nearly took my baby
- Herpes labialis (Oral herpes simplex)
- CDC – Contraindications to Smallpox Vaccination
- WHO – First global estimates of annual number of neonatal herpes cases
- Study – Infant Deaths Due To Herpes Simplex Virus, Congenital Syphilis, and HIV in New York City
- Study – Neonatal Genital HSV-1 After Jewish Circumcision
- Study – Update on Neonatal Herpes Simplex Epidemiology in the Netherlands: A Health Problem of Increasing Concern?
You say “It’s truly mind numbing when these folks try to blame everything on vaccines.” They are not blaming “everything” on vaccines, just this reaction. Can you tell this family, face to face with mother and child, with 100% certainty, that this reaction was not due to the vaccine the child received? Not sure why I bother posting here… you don’t actually want to engage in any sort of dialogue.