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To the Editor: In a paper entitled "Pityriasis-Rosea-like Eruption Following Smallpox Vaccination," (A. M. A. Arch. Dermat. 76:109-110 [July] 1957) F. G. Witherspoon and D. J. Thibodaux report two cases and note three others of pityriasis rosea following smallpox vaccination. In one of the cases the lesions of pityriasis rosea changed into those of vaccinia.
The authors add, "Nowhere in the literature were we able to find reference to pityriasis rosea appearing immediately after smallpox vaccination." In 1948 we published a paper entitled "Cutaneous Complications of Mass Vaccination in New York City, 1947" (J. Invest. Dermat. 11:167-188). We reported seven patients with pityriasis rosea following smallpox vaccination. An additional patient developed generalized vaccinia but also showed lesions resembling pityriasis rosea. We quoted G. Maire and F. Woringer (Eruption généralisée consécutive à une vaccination, Bull. Soc. franç. dermat. et syph. 36:481-482, 1929), who observed a soldier in whom one month after