Swine Flu Vaccine?

[mushumadness]

im having mine on wednesday as I come into the at risk

wondering when they will call up the kids

 

[wideeyes]

I wouldn't want it anyway.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I'm a nurse and we're being offered the vaccine and non of the health professionals that I work with are getting it!

In our hospital the health professionals have been offered it but not many are taking up on the offer - some of those who have had it have felt quite unwell sfter having it. I am not planning on having it myself.

 

[strawberry blonde]

I've just finished the 1st week in my new job as a Doctor's Receptionist and both Doctor's have said they would like us all to have the Swine Flu jab on Monday. It's our choice but I'm not sure what to do.

 

[T16GEM]

Now if they were able to invent a jab for man flu - i'd be all for sending DH for that

Me too!

I don't think any of us will be having it. We have a lot of customers who are doctors and they have nearly all said that they won't be having it.
I am worried about the future side effects of it TBH, especially in the children, so I don't think I would want them to have it either. I am just making sure that we all wash our hands more often, and try and stop the kids from touching door handles etc - Shelby is already in the habit of pulling her sleeve over her hand to open doors or using a tissue to cover her hand so that seems to be working! It's rather comical to see a 4year old doing that though

 

[buzz for boys]

Can I ask why people in the know are not taking it??
My ds is 8 and at risk so we have been offered it and strongly urged to take it !! I will never frogive myself if he doesnt have it and gets swine flu as he has little immune system to fight it !! But then i worry that its not exactly been tested and that will do more harm than good any opinions would be helpful as my gp and consultant are towing the government line !!
Louise x

 

[hildasmuriel]

I have lots of mixed feelings about this. So many people I work with have been diagnosed with swine 'flu and treated with Tamiflu - but none of them have been tested or even seen by a healthcare professional. All they had to do was phone a helpline, name 4 or 5 symptoms and they are told they have swine 'flu and given the tablets. Without exception they have all felt better within 2 or 3 days (although they are not allowed back to work for a week - that is the official advice for school staff) - so either they didn't have swine 'flu in the first place or it is a very mild form of 'flu.

I think the Health Dept have no real idea of how many genuine cases of SF there have been. It certainly doesn't sound bad enough to warrant me having a vaccination that has been produced in a hurry.

I understand it would be a totally different case for someone with underlying health conditions, but for people with 'normal' health, I understand why the NHS is not providing vaccines for all. I bet more than 50% of people wouldn't take it up anyway.

 

[Laurafoster]

From the people i have spoken to the reason why they are not having it is because as far as they are concerned an otherwise healthy individual should be able to fight it off. That being said if your in a "high risk" group and being offered a vaccine you would need to discuss with a professional, all cases are unique and whilst one person may be able to fight it off others may not. Same with normal flu - it kills thousands every year it just depends on how your immune system copes with it.

Flu affects everyone differently, some people get it really bad, i have known people to be in bed for several weeks with the flu and others who are just ill for a week so i imagine swine flu can be the same.

 

[tennisfan]

Can I ask why people in the know are not taking it??
My ds is 8 and at risk so we have been offered it and strongly urged to take it !! I will never frogive myself if he doesnt have it and gets swine flu as he has little immune system to fight it !! But then i worry that its not exactly been tested and that will do more harm than good any opinions would be helpful as my gp and consultant are towing the government line !!
Louise x

I work for the NHS but have decided against having it, not because I think its not been tested enough but because I don't feel the need to have it. I feel i'm exposed to far worse in my job.

The whole thing has been hyped up, I may be swayed towards getting it if the swine flu test had continued but they stopped. I find it very hard to believe that the numbers being thrown about actually had swine flu.

To me its flu & for me that is not enough for me to have another vaccination (I have had to have several for my job). I don't even bother with the flu vaccination

Its a personal choice, i'm not in the at risk catagory either which makes it easier for my decision

 

[ukstitch]

My uncle works directly on the wards (particularly paediatric) at one of the major hospitals in the area (and has done for a few years now) and passed on some information that made me consider having the jab if I was offered it (this was after we suggested it wasn't worth having the jab because it seems to me to have been no worse than seasonal flu so far).

Apparently, it's pretty rare for them to see people seriously ill and hospitalised in the wards he works on with ordinary seasonal flu. However, they are apparently seeing a significantly larger proportion of people with swine flu being brought in.

So - while for a lot of people, swine flu may be no worse than seasonal flu, it seems to be that it can become worse than the seasonal flu in some cases. Of course - as we get closer to winter, it's likely to spread and the proportion of major cases is likely to increase even further.

So - I'm quite tempted to take the jab as a precaution. I hate needles, but three years ago I ended up with pneumonia after a flu like illness and it was horrid - I was on antibiotics for 4 weeks, couldn't go to university for a couple of those and in general pain even when simply trying to breath at the worst of it. I take my chances and don't have the normal flu jab (I probably should have it if I'm honest) but if swine flu can be worse, I don't think I want to chance it.

 

[MandyJane]

I had my swine flu jab 2 days ago as I come in the 'at risk catagory'.I was a bit nervous about having it as there has been so much controversy about it, but in the end I decided it was the right thing to do to prevent myself from potential serious complications if I caught it.

 

[buzz for boys]

Thanks all !! for the moment we are not giving the jab to ds we are playing a waiting game to see what actually happens I agree that there are no official numbers as few peopel actually have the swabs taken now me and dh have decided we will review our decision if and when a confirmed case is in cams school but as he has a history of reactions to vaccines we are holding off for now - fingers crossed we wont regret that decision !!

 

[PoppyAnna]

I had my swine flu jab 2 days ago as I come in the 'at risk catagory'.I was a bit nervous about having it as there has been so much controversy about it, but in the end I decided it was the right thing to do to prevent myself from potential serious complications if I caught it.

Good for you Have you been well since?
DH (at risk status) is having the first of two doses today, I'm still worried though

 

[MandyJane]

I had a sore arm which felt heavy and achey for 2 days and then quite a bad headache the next day but that might have had nothing to do with the jab, anyway now i feel fine and am totally relieved about the whole thing.Hope you DH will feel the same as me and feel that it was worth having it for peace of mind.

 

[disneyholic family]

i was completely against getting the swine flu shot - especially since i had a very bad reaction to the seasonal flu shot i got a month ago (i got suspected guillain barre from it)..

but now things are really taking a turn for the worse here - i live in Israel...

the death rate from swine flu has really jumped up....
the authorities are becoming really concerned about it, especially since so few people have been vaccinated.
Only at risk people are entitled to be vaccinated right now (not enough vaccine has reached the country yet - only 350,000 doses are currently available, but only 11,000 people have been vaccinated since everyone is so afraid of the vaccine).

But the death rate here is now way above the death rate for seasonal flu, so now i really don't know what to do.

I called DS last night and told him i really think he should go in today to get it.
Three years ago, he had complications from the regular seasonal flu. He got myocarditis and was hospitalized for a week (he was 19 years old at the time and perfectly healthy other than the flu).
Several other people died at the same time from the same complication of that seasonal flu.
So DH and i discussed it last night and felt that the risk of the vaccine was worth it, versus the possible outcome of the flu itself.

but i don't know what to do for myself.

A former work colleague of mine is in the hospital right now with swine flu induced pneumonia. He's 35 years old. He was in intensive care, but now seems to be doing better. But several 'healthy' people have died here in the last 3 days, so it's getting really scary.

So i really don't know what to do.

in the US, they keep saying that the death rate is lower than for seasonal flu, so i wonder why it's higher here (in Israel)....
one would assume it's the same flu both places...
medical care is certainly no worse here than in the US....
maybe in the US they're not counting all of the flu-related deaths?....
maybe some deaths are being attributed to other things, when it was really the flu that caused it?...
maybe they're over-counting here? or under-counting those who are sick but don't end up with complications?

anyway, i'm starting to get really nervous about it...

 

[strawberry blonde]

I had mine at work last Monday with all my other collegues. I felt a bit rough for two days and very very tired. Luckily I wasn't back at work until Wed afternoon. Infact my son came in from school on the Tuesday and woke me up as I was asleep on the sofa.
Saying that, I seemed to be the only one who had any side effects other than a sore arm.

 

[disneyholic family]

went to see my internist today.

He was vaccinated against the swine flu vaccine and strongly recommends everyone get it as soon as they're entitled.

He said that this is the worst flu he's ever seen in his career (he's 55 years old).
he's already had several patients who had to be hospitalized in intensive care, in very serious life-threatening conditions.

unfortunately, i don't qualify for the vaccine yet. I"ll only be able to get it in december. But as soon as i can, i'll be rolling up my sleeve.

 

[catherine]

I'm a nurse and we're being offered the vaccine and non of the health professionals that I work with are getting it!

A week or two ago I posted the above. However since I posted this I and several of my colleagues have relented and had the Swine Flu vaccine. I decided to go ahead and get it after doing some more research and because I'm flying to Orlando on the 1st Dec and I figured that all it took was one person on that flight to have Swine Flu and we could all be at risk. In addition DH got his on Mon. so if he was going to have immunity and we as a family caught it, then I didn't want him to be the one taking care of the rest of us!

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Had my jab on Saturday, still here.
Only sort of side effect is that my shoulder where they jabbed me has been very sore for about four days (the two nurses had exactly the same symptoms) felt like I had been beaton up in the arm

 

[wayneg]

Matt came home from school yesterday not well, slept about 3 hours, went on NHS site and it prescribed Tamiflu, started the course before he went to bed, up lots of times thru the night.