The Last Dryvax Vaccines Have Been Destoyed

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The world’s oldest vaccine is no more. The CDC announced on Friday it has disposed of the last 12 million doses of Dryvax. Dryvax is the oldest smallpox vaccine helping to eradicate the disease worldwide.

Created by scraping virus off the skin of infected calves Dryvax was a particularly dangerous virus. In recent years it has been blamed for heart problems following the lifesaving dose.

Dryvax was formulated in the late 1800s by what would become Wyeth Laboratories. By the mid-1940s Wyeth was the primary manufacturer in the United States for the smallpox vaccine and by the 1960s was the only company still making the lifesaving shot. It made its final doses in the 1980s.

Until the 1970s the smallpox vaccine was a part of the routine childhood shot schedule. The disease has been declared eradicated from the world since 1980.

The United States government stockpiled 15 doses of the vaccine. During a outbreak of monkeypox in 2003 that stockpile was used.

“There are situations where one does have to have a smallpox vaccine,” said Dr. Neal Halsey, director of John Hopkins University’s Institute for Vaccine Safety.

After the 9/11 attacks there were fears that smallpox would be used by bio-terrorists. Many emergency workers were vaccinated in case of that resulting in a painful heart inflammation for a small number. Because of the risks to the vaccine a new one has been developed called ACAM2000. It was derived from Dryvax but created in the lab. It is unclear if it will have fewer side effects than the old vaccine.

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