Proof that vaccination works...

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Oh I wasn't questioning it you.. I know they have to get shots for all sorts of weird things - things not necessary to the general public.. Isn't there something about malaria too? A vaccine or medication or something of that nature?

So is the fear of acne and it being contagious because it's a live vaccine? I was so young when I had mine - waaaaay too many years ago to remember all the details - just that I was afraid of shots and all those little holes in a perfect circle..

It's a good thing that I eventually outgrew my fear of needles or I would be in a heap of trouble..LOL..

Oh I didn't think you were doubting me! I was just explaining how many of them get it since you seemed suprised.

Yes it is live... They were advised to even avoid sunburn(as they should anyway) because the peeling skin could be contagious!



They do give out all kinds of strange shots. He had to have a general penicillin shot too...I mean...isn't it bad to give antibiotics just to do it? Don't you become like IMMUNE to them?

 

[Geoff_M]

Ah.. Okay.. That makes sense.. Come to think of it, weren't they talking about that shortly after 9/11 - germ warfare with smallpox?

There was discussion about re-instituting mass immunizations after 9/11, but some medical experts (including some that are often accused of being paid shills for Big Pharma to promote vaccines) advised that the risks of vaccinating a population against a theoretical bio-terrorism attack that might never happen weren't worth it. On top of that, given the nature of smallpox, it is visible when a victim is contagious it was argued that an outbreak would be relatively easy to contain while vaccinations could begin. Eventually, the plan was dropped.

 

[C.Ann]

Oh I didn't think you were doubting me! I was just explaining how many of them get it since you seemed suprised.

Yes it is live... They were advised to even avoid sunburn(as they should anyway) because the peeling skin could be contagious!

Yikes! That is scary..

 

[themilesfamily]

Our entire family was whisked into the doctors office during the night - as soon as the hospital confirmed that my sister had polio.. That was a very scary time..

C.Ann, I hadn't heard about this happening to your sister. That is terrifying. Was her treatment successful?

One of the "mentor moms" in my moms group had a daughter who died from chicken pox when she was little. She said something about the disease eventually settling into her daughter's spine and she didn't make it.

I think as the seriousness of these diseases fade from memory, people become more hesitant to vaccinate. I'd hate to see any of these diseases come back full-force.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

I was born in 1973 in California...I too have the big round small pox scar. However, I don't remember receiving the vaccine.

 

[ilovejack02]

I was born in 1973 in California...I too have the big round small pox scar. However, I don't remember receiving the vaccine.

I was born in 73 too, didn't have it . No one my age has it ,but my friends born in 69 or earlier all do for the most part. Go figure.

Just had my tetnus shot a few weeks ago. Guess I am good for another ten years. Let's hope I don't cut tip of my finger off again lol.

 

[Mandychelle79]

I believe that in the beginning, they did not realize that a booster would be required. There are several immunizations that are given a booster or are given in series.

Yes, I know this However when it first came out when people were worried about the safety of it and how long it would last, we were told to look at countries that were already using it and had been for years. My coworkers were told that their child would only need it one time, based on 18 yrs of research, because they were worried that it would wear off by the time their children were adults, and seriously, how many adults get boosters?

 

[indimom]

I was born in 1973 in California...I too have the big round small pox scar. However, I don't remember receiving the vaccine.

I was born in 1972 and have a sis born in 1971, we do not have it. Our sis born in 1968 does.

 

[indimom]

As far as the chicken pox vax, I had to share this story for the sake of adults who have never had pox or the vax.
I'm still friends with a girl from high school and in October of 2009, her husband (early 40s) caught chicken pox while teaching PE at an elementary school. He went to the doc for confirmation it was chicken pox on a Friday morning. He was told to keep an eye on it since chicken pox in an adult can get bad. That same night he was restless and throwing up, so he moved into a guest room that had a nearby bathroom to sleep - didn't want to disturb his wife.
When she got up Saturday morning, she checked on him and he was unresponsive. She called 911 and he was rushed off to the nearest hospital, then immediately transported to a larger hospital.
He spent three months in ICU, most of that in a coma, before he finally woke up. Spent another couple months between the hospital and a rehab facility.
He went from a strapping guy of around 200 pounds to a shadow of himself at 140!!!! I didn't see him until the summer of 2010 and he still only weighed 155 and had to use a walker to get around.
Personally, I'd get the vax if you are an adult and have never had chicken pox.

 

[RunningGirl]

Darn it; I misread the title of this thread as "Proof that VACATIONS work". Guess I'll have to go to work today.

 

[metalis4ever]

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/25/deaths-from-chickenpox-down/


Awesome news. It's hard to fight statistics like these...

The sad news is that people ignore statistics such as these and don't get vaccinated and become carriers and help spread controlled viruses i.e measles, mumps, polio etc....

 

[Swan4Me]

I still remember getting the chicken pox as a kid-very miserable experience-having to lie in a bathtub of oatmeal stuff-yuck

And also remember my little brother getting the mumps and how swollen his face was-pure misery.

Every parent needs to Vaccinate their kids

 

[pigletgirl]

I think I only had about 5 sores when I had the chicken pox. I was vaccinated in elementary school, because of that. I'm glad I did! My kids will be too when that time comes.

 

[HM]

I had chicken pox as a teenager. Terrible. All the kids in our house had it at the same time with the youngest at 4 hardly sick at all and me and my other sister at 13 and 14 sick as dogs and covered with bumps. I would not wish that on anyone. (Mom wouldn't even let us look in a mirror for a week).

My kids both got chicken pox (at ages 3 and 5) since I put off the vaccine. I hoped they'd actually get them. The vaccine was just brand new when they were that age and there wasn't enough information. By the time my youngest was in school, if they had not gotten them, I would have probably given them the vaccine. My doctor concurred with this.

 

[C.Ann]

C.Ann, I hadn't heard about this happening to your sister. That is terrifying. Was her treatment successful?

I guess it depends on ones definition of "successful".. Compared to some who ended up 100% crippled, yes - her treatment was successful.. She spent many, many months in a hospital that was treating only polio patients.. (She came down with it during that huge outbreak when I was just a very young child - not even in school yet - and she was just entering her teen years..) When she eventually returned home she spent at least a year going to rehab to learn to walk again without braces.. (The school district we lived in provided a tutor that came to our home every day so she could continue on with her education. They were very good about it and scheduled her tutoring around her rehab appts. so she wouldn't fall behind.)

After that, she was never able to run again; ride a bike; climb a tree; play any sports; - and one arm was so severely afflicted that the only way she could raise it higher than her waist was by pulling it up with the other arm.. She thought that was the worst of it - until many years later when she developed post-polio syndrome (probably when she was in her early 50's or so).. That posed all sorts of new problems for her - too many to get into here..

Since then she has gotten progressively worse - and now - as a senior citizen -her legs will often give out and she will fall down; there are days when both arms are practically useless (but still other days when the one good arm works fine); days when she can't even get out of bed; etc.. The falling down is becoming a serious issue with her living alone in Florida (although she has good friends that check on her daily - if not twice a day) - but now that she's been diagnosed with Altzheimers as well, she's beginning to look at selling her place and moving into an assisted living facility down there..

But as I said - she didn't end up 100% crippled (or dead) - so I would say her treatment was fairly successful.. I don't even know what types of treatment polio patients received back then (although I do know there were iron lungs involved) - but it was definitely a terrifying time for my family.. (And I would imagine very expensive as well because I don't think there was any health insurance available back then like what we have today..)

I think having witnessed that as a very young child (even though I didn't understand a lot of it) is why I often wonder about people avoiding vaccinations for their children.. I'm not criticizing them - they may have very good reasons - but I guess the fears that our family went through has jaded my opinion.. If the polio vaccinations had been available sooner - and us kids had already received them - life would be much different for my sister now.. It was just bad timing - and bad luck..

 

[jodifla]

Chicken pox was the only childhood disease I got, because it was the one there was no vaccine for when I was a kid.

It was TERRIBLE! I still have scars today from it. I'm glad my son will be able to avoid the trauma of it.

 

[Deb in IA]

I was born in 1973 in California...I too have the big round small pox scar. However, I don't remember receiving the vaccine.

I was born in 73 too, didn't have it . No one my age has it ,but my friends born in 69 or earlier all do for the most part. Go figure.

In the US, routine childhood vaccination for smallpox was discontinued in 1972, and it was discontinued for heathcare workers in 1976.

The last case of naturally occuring smallpox was in 1975, I think in Bangladesh.

Sometime around 1978, all known stocks of smallpox were destroyed or transferred to one of two WHO reference laboratories, one at the CDC in the US, and the other in Russia.

The WHO declared smallpox erradicated in 1979.

 

[Deb in IA]

I think having witnessed that as a very young child (even though I didn't understand a lot of it) is why I often wonder about people avoiding vaccinations for their children..

This is, ironically, a result of how successful our vaccine program is.

No one remembers how devastating these diseases really are, since they are so rarely, if ever, seen anymore.

Certainly smallpox, polio, diptheria, tetanus, meningococcemia, pertussis, haemophilus influenza type B (HIB) were horrible, but since we don't see them anymore, we have gotten complacent, and in some cases, grossly misguided.

 

[joyjoy]

I have two smallpox vaccination scars. One on my left shoulder I got as a baby, and another just above it I had to get at 16 before I left to study abroad for a year. Omg, that was a disgusting sore/then scab that developed, gross. And it itched like mad.

When i got to the Netherlands, I was interested to learn that they still vaccinated babies for SP, but did it on the hip to hide the scar.

 

[golfgal]

I guess it depends on ones definition of "successful".. Compared to some who ended up 100% crippled, yes - her treatment was successful.. She spent many, many months in a hospital that was treating only polio patients.. (She came down with it during that huge outbreak when I was just a very young child - not even in school yet - and she was just entering her teen years..) When she eventually returned home she spent at least a year going to rehab to learn to walk again without braces.. (The school district we lived in provided a tutor that came to our home every day so she could continue on with her education. They were very good about it and scheduled her tutoring around her rehab appts. so she wouldn't fall behind.)

After that, she was never able to run again; ride a bike; climb a tree; play any sports; - and one arm was so severely afflicted that the only way she could raise it higher than her waist was by pulling it up with the other arm.. She thought that was the worst of it - until many years later when she developed post-polio syndrome (probably when she was in her early 50's or so).. That posed all sorts of new problems for her - too many to get into here..

Since then she has gotten progressively worse - and now - as a senior citizen -her legs will often give out and she will fall down; there are days when both arms are practically useless (but still other days when the one good arm works fine); days when she can't even get out of bed; etc.. The falling down is becoming a serious issue with her living alone in Florida (although she has good friends that check on her daily - if not twice a day) - but now that she's been diagnosed with Altzheimers as well, she's beginning to look at selling her place and moving into an assisted living facility down there..

But as I said - she didn't end up 100% crippled (or dead) - so I would say her treatment was fairly successful.. I don't even know what types of treatment polio patients received back then (although I do know there were iron lungs involved) - but it was definitely a terrifying time for my family.. (And I would imagine very expensive as well because I don't think there was any health insurance available back then like what we have today..)

I think having witnessed that as a very young child (even though I didn't understand a lot of it) is why I often wonder about people avoiding vaccinations for their children.. I'm not criticizing them - they may have very good reasons - but I guess the fears that our family went through has jaded my opinion.. If the polio vaccinations had been available sooner - and us kids had already received them - life would be much different for my sister now.. It was just bad timing - and bad luck..

This is, ironically, a result of how successful our vaccine program is.

No one remembers how devastating these diseases really are, since they are so rarely, if ever, seen anymore.

Certainly smallpox, polio, diptheria, tetanus, meningococcemia, pertussis, haemophilus influenza type B (HIB) were horrible, but since we don't see them anymore, we have gotten complacent, and in some cases, grossly misguided.

I agree. Most people did not have any of the "major" illnesses when I was a child-measles, polio, etc. but you certainly knew people that had. Everyone took their kids to someone's house to expose them to chicken pox so they could be done with that and have it early. I remember having mumps when I was in kindergarten. I STILL remember how painful that was. It is similar to so many young people smoking again, they didn't grow up with parents that smoked and don't really see all the issues that causes.