I need to get the measles booster because I was born in 1977 and apparently my age group needs an adult booster. Apart from that, I’m totally up to date.
I am curious about the discontinuation of the smallpox vaccine. I had it, and have the scar. (born in 1969,raised in Northern Ontario). My brother, born in 1974 didn’t get it. Kids the year younger than I am that I went to grade school have the scar, but a boyfriend a year younger who lived in Indiana from birth to age 2 (then raised in Southern Ontario) does not. I guess different health units discontinued it on different schedules… does anyone have any information about this?
Too late to edit" I found this
I got all of them, some twice, except for mumps which I had naturally. I think I need another Hep B shot, as it comes in a series of 3 and I’ve only had 2.
I’ve only had the flu 4 times in 50 years and they were all mild cases, but I still get the shot anyway.
No travel related vaccines for me, but EVERYTHING else I can get- and I’ve posted elsewhere about having Guillain Barre’ and not being allowed to get flu shots, until I talked my doc into it, and stopped getting flu(s) ;0. Vaccines are most certainly not perfect, but they are a hell of a lot less risky that the diseases. Born in 1950 so I got MMR and CP, have a smallpox scar.
Cool story- I shared an office for a bit with a social worker whose husband is a TB researcher, an immunologist. In 1996 or so, he was inoculated (for the second time) with smallpox, which at the time I thought quite puzzling. Apparently he had a huge reaction, and had to be isolated from their children, as they hadn’t been immunized as toddlers in the 90s. He works for a company that does cutting edge research. He was told “it’s obvious, lad, you’ve excellent defense” and I never heard any more about it…except there’s no TB vaccine, yet.
I’m super vaccinated, and carry around my vaccination card with me for all my international travels. I don’t even remember everything I’ve been vaccinated for.
I also usually get the flu vaccine every year, but I think I missed this year.
We do? I’ve never had anyone tell me that. Oh, wait. It’s only if you didn’t get a booster when you were 11 or 12. I thought all the girls did, though, because they wanted us to get it before we got pregnant. I know I got it in the 6th grade.
I believe I’m up-to-date on all the vaccines one expects a 37-year-old who doesn’t travel internationally to have gotten. I got my latest tetanus and whooping cough booster a couple of years ago, and get the flu vaccine yearly.
Given my age, I was never vaccinated for the chicken pox (too old) which I got at age 3, or small pox (too young).
Overwhelmingly yes including against stuff that most Americans wouldn’t even think about being vaccinated against including things like smallpox (as an adult) and Anthrax (although not current). For all the typical US recommendations I was current as of a little over a year ago.
This quote confused me. Given the mutation of the flu viruses just getting the current shot doesn’t mean you don’t pick up a different strain or that you are protected against the most prevalent severe strain. The latest seasonal vaccine actually provides pretty poor protection against most of the strains causing visits to doctors this year. Tamiflu is pretty useful for all the mutated strains.
Flu is one area where I tend to skip vaccination when it’s not been mandatory for me. I typically react more severely to vaccines than most thanks to a fun immune system. It’s not uncommon for the flu vaccine to make me “sick” enough (sure it’s not a living multiplying virus multiplying in me but most of the symptoms and misery) to miss work or wish I could. The cost to benefit simply isn’t there for me with regards to flu. I can survive the chance that I get one of the protected strains but have to balance that against the very high probability of having symptoms like a mild to moderate case. As I continue to get older that will change since the risk side of catching the real virus goes up. The bright side being that I my overreaction to weak/dead viruses has gradually gone down since my youth.
I had shingles at 44. My baby sister had it at 30. If you can get your doctor to give you the shingles shot, you should.
I had the measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria boosters almost six years ago.
I was born in 1954 and I’m pretty sure I caught all the childhood diseases when I was a kid in the pre-vaccine era. This past fall, I got a flu shot (first time in eons) and a shingles shot (just in case) and I know when I was in the Navy, I got jabbed in the arm several times, but I don’t recall why.
So I guess I’m OK - I’m 61 and not dead yet, nor have I spread anything fatal to anyone as far as I know.
Here’s a fairly scary book about smallpox. It’s not eradicated, just sleeping.
I got a tetanus booster a year or so back, but I’d never heard of a pertussis or diphtheria booster till I read about them here. I’ll ask my doctor if they’re available over here. Also if I need a measles booster. We spent my childhood moving around, and we were in Africa when I was 11, so I may not have got the booster then.
I’m pretty pissed off, actually, that no doctor told me you can/should get a pertussis booster in the last trimester of pregnancy to protect the baby through its first couple of months. I have a kid who’ll be two this spring, and when she was a few weeks old, one of her big sister’s friends had a pertussis scare. He was fully vaccinated, but one of his friends isn’t, and vaccination isn’t 100%, so I was scared the unvaccinated kid had caught it and passed it on to the mutual friend against the odds - and here was my baby too young for her shot… It turned out to be just a bad cough, but still, dammit. Obstetricians should tell pregnant women this routinely.
I’ll need a booster of the MMR when I hit 50. I had to get it updated when I was 20 because there was an outbreak of measles at my university, and I’d gotten my second MMR shot two days before I turned 1 year old, and university rules, blah blah. Ever try to argue with a civil servant? It was easier to get the shot and didn’t do me any harm.
I probably need a new tetanus jab, but am otherwise up to date. (Too old for the HPV jab, too young for the shingles jab…)
I enjoy books like that. Thank you. I vaugely remember it coming out, and had planned to read it, but 2003 was when my son was born and I don’t think I read anything other than magazines and children’s books for the next two years. (I think even my postings on the dope were pretty infrequent then… it explains a bit about how I have been a member almost 15 years with so few posts)
Got my Tdap yesterday! (Not because of this thread – just a coincidence that I had it on my calendar to get my third trimester shot.) Interestingly, when I mentioned it to my ob-gyn, he was like, uh, yeah, of course you should get it! But he hadn’t said anything to me about it!
I do live in a city that’s got more than its fair share of anti-vaxxers, though, so maybe he just didn’t want to get into it. I do mostly like him as a doctor, but he definitely seems on the low-conflict side to me. (But… it’s also, not coincidentally, got outbreaks of pertussis, I still feel like he should’ve said something!)
I assume I am since my doctor is good about bugging me to get vaccinations. Get flu shots every year. Had all the standard diseases as a kid before MMR came out, except mumps, and got that shot before our first kid was born.
Plus, before going to Africa I got tons of really interesting shots at age almost 10.
You got the TB vaccine in the United States? I’m shocked. I’ve never heard of a primary doctor stocking it here. The CDC does not recommend it, not even for international travel. Did you have to go to a TB control center to get it?
I’m as up to date as they’ll let me be. Titered positive for all the childhood ones as an adult (chicken pox was the only one I acquired naturally, before the vaccine was available) given a Tdap booster, got the HepB series, and the last HepB included a HepA, which isn’t really widely given, but the clinic I went to for the last one (different that the clinic I went to for the first two HepBs) gave it as a combo shot. Since the HepA combo is usually given three times, I’m not entirely sure if I formed an immunity with just one or not. Since I’m not at high risk, I don’t care much at this point. If I become high risk, I’ll probably get the two standalone HepA shots, unless my doctor advises otherwise.
I get the influenza vaccine each year, and will get the shingles just as soon as I’m old enough or they reduce the age to my age. Pneumonia vaccination is still 25 years in my future, unless I become high risk for some reason.
My last vaccine was for shingles b/c I had chicken pox as a kid. I was a health aide and had clients that had shingles and I sure don’t want it .
I don’t remember the details, but it was in the mid-70s, and it was required for one of our visas, I’m pretty sure the one for Poland, because my mother said TB was common there. I was only 9 at the time. I remember having the test, and going back to have it checked, and then, when it was negative, getting the shot, which left a very small scar. I honestly don’t remember if we got the shot at my GP or not.
My husband also got a TB vaccine before going to Iraq.
I used to have a TB test every year where I worked, and sometimes it looked “inconclusive.” I said maybe I still had antibodies from the vaccine, and showed the nurse my scar. She said usually TB vaccines wore off unless people were in an environment where they were constantly re-exposed, but I was never sent for a chest x-ray.