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Article
July 1957

Pityriasis-Rosea-like Eruption Following Smallpox Vaccination

Author Affiliations

Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans

From the section on Dermatology, Fort Campbell Army Hospital, Fort Campbell, Ky. Consultant on Dermatology to the Surgeon General, Fort Campbell Army Hospital (Dr. Witherspoon). Formerly chief of Dermatology section, Fort Campbell Army Hospital (Dr. Thibodaux).

AMA Arch Derm. 1957;76(1):109-110. doi:10.1001/archderm.1957.01550190113025
Abstract

Many sorts of eruptions have been reported to follow vaccination against smallpox. In 1942 Bloch1 reported 123 postvaccinial rashes after 500,000 persons were vaccinated in Glasgow because of a smallpox epidemic there. These eruptions usually appeared 7 to 11 days after a well-marked positive primary vaccination. Most of these eruptions were diagnosed as papular urticaria or erythema multiforme, with a scattering of other conditions appearing. None of these, however, were diagnosed as pityriasis rosea. Sulzberger2 reported that he has never seen a case of pityriasis rosea following smallpox vaccination. Cohen3 has not observed such an occurrence in Great Britain. Marshall,4 in a recent extensive study in South Africa, does not mention vaccination preceding pityriasis rosea.

Last winter a senior medical student at Vanderbilt University developed pityriasis rosea following a routine vaccination. After this, the lesions of pityriasis rosea became vesicular and were con

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