I got a flu shot the other day, and they gave me a tri-fold ‘vaccination card’. When I was little I got the usual shots – rubella, polio… who knows what else? I don’t. What vaccinations were ‘usual’ in the mid-to-late-'60s? How would I know what shots I’ve had? How long do they last?
I’d like to know too. I recall my mum taking me for shots, she was a nurse in pediatrics so I’m sure she’d have made sure I got what I needed. But the last shots I can remember getting was in the 5th grade. I got hep shots later in life.
Measles, mumps, and rubella; diptheria, pertussis, and tetanus; and smallpox.*
I still have my smallpox scar, do you? Did you know that the scar is from the single pox (pock?) that forms from the vaccine, and not from the needle?
- Forgot about polio. In the 60s it was given as a live oral vaccine. They changed it to a shot in 2000 because there was a risk of polio from the live virus.
Thanks for the list, Blob. I’m pretty sure I had all of those. No sign of a smallpox scar, though. Still, I had to have had it, right? I had a tetanus shot a few years ago. I had meningitis as an infant, and chickenpox when I was five; so I should be protected against those.
Wow, meningitis is scary! The scar should be on the back of your left arm, about the size of a dime. It’s probably faded and barely visible except in the right light. It’s a badge of honor! Young whippersnappers don’t have 'em! 
Should be, but I don’t feel like looking just now. Never noticed it before.
My parents took me to the Navy hospital in San Diego. The doctor said, ‘We’re taking him.’ I guess I was pretty sick.
I must’ve got the oral polio as I can remember getting something to drink instead of a shot
I got a bunch of the usual suspects vax as a kid … after I actually had the disease :rolleyes: I had both measles, german measles, chicken pox and whooping cough before I was 5 years old, then I had to get the vax to get into school in the US. I never had mumps or a vax for it until I caught the mumps as an adult babysitting for a friends kid with it. I found out the hard way. I was babysitting, and my mom called to chat and I mentioned Tony had mumps and she sort of hesitantly reminded me I never had them as a kid :smack: It really does make you look like a chipmunk. 
On the plus side, I stepped on a suitcase latch and cut my foot when mrAru was doing an overnight ER rotation during EMT school, so I went in for a booster and stitches and he volunteered me to be a shot training dummy for a few guys in the class, so I ended up with every vax they had available at Portsmouth Navy, so I got the recruit cruds and the overseas package at the same time. Never needed the yellow fever nor the black plague vax, but it is nice to know that I could get blipped back in history to the 13th century and not worry =) And I also got vax for rabies because at the time I was handling a lot of the vetting on my own animals and there is rabies in raccoons, skunks, bats and random mammals in Ct.
Having had meningitis as a child immunes you? I wasn’t aware of that. I was hospitalized in 1963 with it. (And how many four-year-olds know where they were when Kennedy was shot?)
It’s always been an assumption on my part. That doesn’t mean it’s correct.
Do you mean you don’t have a national, or even the international,immunization card/ pass in your country? We get it with the first shots as children (which are required and provided by national health). Or rather, our parents keep it at first, later we get it. You carry it around to prevent double Tetanus shots, and to look up when to renew your 10 year polio shots.
New passes given out by health insurers are to track X-rays - taken when and where and of what, so you can contact Dr. X for a copy of the X-ray instead of having Dr. Y take another one 1 month later.
Y’see, there’s the problem! 
According to your link, they are available from DHHS in the U.S. But I’ve never heard of them. Of course I’ve heard of people having to get yellow fever shots if they’re traveling through the Panama Canal. (Whether that’s still required, I don’t know.) But until I got my flu shot, I’d never heard of a ‘vaccination card’. I assumed that schools kept vaccination records for a certain number of years and then tossed them, or that one’s primary care physician had such records. But my childhood PCPs are probably dead know, even if I had a way to find out who they were.
When you’re a kid you’ve got your immunization records around because you need them for school and such (and you need them for college - when I went to college in 1997 you needed a MMR booster and a TB test, don’t know if it’s different now). As an adult, no.
Well, don’t you have office from the WHO or the Green cross in your country, either? These also pass out the cards.
To the OP, I don’t know if you have a dedicated pediatrican who would give the routine shots during the first 24 months, if they would be given at a hospital or elsewhere (or not at all, given your private health insurance system), but I would contact all three places and ask if they still have your information. (They might have cleaned out after x number of years, if you are unlucky). Then, have them enter the information into the international WHO pass.
As for how long each vaccination lasts, there’s a table on Wikipedia, or should be a link to the WHO or the national center for vaccinations (or whatever that body is called of scientists who advise on that topic).
If you have no luck getting the info directly, some vaccinations like Tbc can be tested for - they prick you on the arm, and if you develop a rash, you have anti-tuberkel in your blood and are safe. The polio scar is also a good indicator. Not all vacs. might be proven that way; but then, not all vacs. are necessary undera ll circumstances. I would advise you talking to a competent doctor on what you might need at your age if you didn’t get it as child. E.g. if you still have contact to a lot of children or babies, whooping cough could be a danger. Or if you travel into certain countries/ come into contact with people from there, some diseases might be at more risk.
Also, some vacs. given in the 70s have worn off earlier then they were expected to, and people got mumps or measles in their 40s and 50s who felt safe. Again, the best is to ask a doctor. Also, individual health, age, known allergies (indicating reactions to the vac.) etc.
I’m a Navy Brat, so I went to the Balboa Navy hospital under CHAMPUS. I think I heard that that hospital is no longer there. No doubt I was seen by whatever doctor was on duty at the time, rather than having a primary physician.
I don’t have a need for my vaccination records. It’s just that when I got the card (not a Carte Jaune) from Rite-Aid it got me wondering. I’m not planning to go to any foreign countries (except Canada, of course), and I don’t have any contact with children. I just need vaccinations to ward off infections from people on a crowded bus. 
This, I don’t understand. Even if you don’t travel abroad, abroad comes to you. And certain vac.s need to be refreshed every ten years. Even at home, without children, you can stab through your foot while gardening or have any other accident that requires a tetanus shot. Being able to grab your yellow pass and see when you got your last one is a bonus in that case, so how can you not need it?
I don’t understand the mindset. Is this part of the american paranoia - if you don’t have a vac. pass, jackbooted thugs from the govt. won’t drag you away because you aren’t registered, or something?
Here’s the American schedule for what vac.s to refresh when.
I didn’t even know there was a Green Cross.
No, it’s not paranoia, just something we don’t need in our daily lives. I’m not quite sure why you do need it - do you get many boosters besides tetanus, or exotic stuff if you’re going to an interesting part of abroad? If you step on a rusty nail, they ask you when your last tetanus shot was. If you don’t know, they give you another one. I haven’t had a tetanus shot since the seventh grade, so I’d need a new one. You get a flu shot or not every year. I’m considering getting the pertussis vaccine because I work with a nasty vulnerable population, but it’s certainly not required. What would I be keeping track of? Are Europeans really getting a lot of adult vaccinations? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, or that it isn’t smarter, but I didn’t realize it was the case.
The last required vaccination I got was an MMR booster that all incoming college students are required to get.
ETA - just because you read it on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s a fact of public life. Most adults probably never get any boosters at all, unless they step on a nail. People get flu shots, but not everybody, and it’s a personal choice.
In general, the US system is more or less having your doctor ask you when the last time you had various vaccinations. Unless the patient has been seeing the same doctor for a long time, patient answers, “Gee, it’s been a long time.” Doctor gives a couple of shots, and patient walks on his merry way, whether it’s been 5 months or 25 years since the last tetanus shot.
I think most Americans who don’t travel a lot would regard keeping a vaccination record sheet as unnecessary – as in, that’s the kind of stuff that should be in their medical record and let the doctor keep track of it.
I have never heard of a WHO or Green Cross office in the US. (In fact, the Green Cross seems to be a common name for semi-legal medical marijuana dispensaries in the US.) Doctors who give travel vaccinations, like yellow fever, are generally certified by the WHO to give their stamp on the vaccination records, but nobody would go to the WHO directly.