Whooping cough

[Lucille]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/health/policy/whooping-cough-epidemic-hits-washington-state.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120513


Some years ago, it was thought this disease was all but eradicated in the US. I remember my father, a doctor, describing one of his patients, describing the frightening 'whoop' sound of a child struggling to breath.

Many parents are choosing, these days, not to immunize their children because of some risks associated with vaccine use. But the basic set of immunizations, DPT- diphtheria, pertussis,(whooping cough) tetanus, are for diseases that can cause death.
Statistics of side effects for these older vaccines are available so that a parent can be informed prior to making a vaccine choice for their child.

[WebSlave]

I suspect that some of the old scourges of the past will be making a strong comeback. Between having our immune systems compromised by environmental pollution on many levels (maybe it's just a coincidence that Washington state is catching a lot of the radioactivity associated with the Japanese crisis), people being more mobile across the globe sometimes bringing along a host of microbes and such, the global state of public health and attendant monitoring taking a hit from budget cuts across the board worldwide, and pathogens seemingly becoming progressively more drug resistant, humanity might be in for a rough ride. Heck, we probably never hear about most of the bullets that narrowly miss us.

[Helenthereef]

Yeah, but a lot of it is people becoming complacent because of never having experienced these diseases due to the success of immunization programmes. It's ironic that the immunization paranoia is now bringing a return of diseases we thought of as relegated to the past.

[WebSlave]

Well, the problem with epidemics is that first a lot of people have to get sick before it becomes labelled as such. So those first people to get sick get smacked down before they even know there is a problem they should take steps to try to avoid. WE could be those "first people" at any time.

[Wraith]

Some years ago, it was thought this disease was all but eradicated in the US. I remember my father, a doctor, describing one of his patients, describing the frightening 'whoop' sound of a child struggling to breath.

Statistics of side effects for these older vaccines are available so that a parent can be informed prior to making a vaccine choice for their child.

A lot of adults out there are not aware of that fact that the vaccine they got as a kid wears off! I came down with it a while back and trust me if you think a severe case of bronchitis is horrible.. it has nothing on whooping cough. I honestly don't know how kids manage to survive it at all. You can literally break ribs from coughing so hard and long and yes you do eventually reach a stage where you make those scary "whoop" sounds.

[snowgyre]

My brother passed out while standing on the steps of the hospital from whooping cough. My mother is disabled and was unable to help. It is a terribly, horribly frightening experience to watch someone cough and cough until they quite literally suffocate. There is such a thing as herd immunity... you can only prevent a disease if a certain percentage of the population is immune against it. The study that claimed vaccines caused autism was rescinded due to bad study design and years and years of studies that failed to replicate the results. People who choose not to vaccinate their children are doing themselves and their neighbors an extremely dangerous disservice.

[April Homich]

I had whooping cough when I was young. It was no fun at all...:ack2:

[deborahbroadus]

With what I've learned about doctors, scientists, laboratories, etc. I'll take my chances with "Mother Nature," or a clean cut (surgery if applicable). Thankfully, I'll no longer be put to the test of deciding what's best for my children; this applies only to me.

I don't do the immunizations (flu and the like) never have and have not gotten sick. I do not see the logic in inserting a "mild" form of the disease into myself and hoping it will stay mild and thus inoculate me against the disease in the possible future. People have died from inoculation complications; I do not trust the doctors, scientists, and laboratory people to have MY best interests in mind.

I'll take my chances with my own decisions based on the fact that I do recognize these illnesses, and I do take precautions (hand washing, bathing after the day before I go to bed, etc). I have notice in other cultures, that bathing in the morning is considered enough of a precaution. I disagree.

Think of a car. We get it washed in the morning, and by evening there's a thin layer of dust/dirt on it; this is regardless of whether we garage the car or not. Now apply this logic to humans. We are outside, in almost constant contact with others...and then some of us go to sleep with all that dirt, germs, etc...(whatever we picked up for the day). Sleep is when our defenses are down, (if we aren't already sick and forcing our bodies to work 24/7 fighting off the disease), and all that was picked up thoughout the day has a prime opportunity to find an "opening" (did we get a paper cut, did someone sneeze in our vicinity? All this has a chance to work on us while we are sleep. UNLESS, we wash it off before we go to bed.

That's MY logic. May not be anyone elses', but I rarely ever get sick. I can go years before I even catch a cold.

*this was before the Chemo factor.

[deborahbroadus]

Let me add, even though my immunity defenses are weak/down post-Chemotherapy, I've still managed to avoid a LOT of the stuff that was floating around during my weakest times.

[WebSlave]

With what I've learned about doctors, scientists, laboratories, etc. I'll take my chances with "Mother Nature," or a clean cut (surgery if applicable). Thankfully, I'll no longer be put to the test of deciding what's best for my children; this applies only to me.

I don't do the immunizations (flu and the like) never have and have not gotten sick. I do not see the logic in inserting a "mild" form of the disease into myself and hoping it will stay mild and thus inoculate me against the disease in the possible future. People have died from inoculation complications; I do not trust the doctors, scientists, and laboratory people to have MY best interests in mind.

I'll take my chances with my own decisions based on the fact that I do recognize these illnesses, and I do take precautions (hand washing, bathing after the day before I go to bed, etc). I have notice in other cultures, that bathing in the morning is considered enough of a precaution. I disagree.

Think of a car. We get it washed in the morning, and by evening there's a thin layer of dust/dirt on it; this is regardless of whether we garage the car or not. Now apply this logic to humans. We are outside, in almost constant contact with others...and then some of us go to sleep with all that dirt, germs, etc...(whatever we picked up for the day). Sleep is when our defenses are down, (if we aren't already sick and forcing our bodies to work 24/7 fighting off the disease), and all that was picked up thoughout the day has a prime opportunity to find an "opening" (did we get a paper cut, did someone sneeze in our vicinity? All this has a chance to work on us while we are sleep. UNLESS, we wash it off before we go to bed.

That's MY logic. May not be anyone elses', but I rarely ever get sick. I can go years before I even catch a cold.

*this was before the Chemo factor.

Heck, I RARELY go to the doctors for anything. To be quite honest, when they stop calling what they do a "practice", and indicate to me that they are prepared to state that they KNOW what they are doing, well, maybe I'll have a lot more confidence in what they try to prescribe to ME.

BTW, take LOTS of vitamins and mineral supplements. I used to give my animals all kinds of dietary supplements and noticed that where other people were complaining about their animals getting sick or just gradually going downhill after years in captivity, ours just weren't going that route. So DUH! I decided to start taking vitamins and mineral supplements myself. And honestly, I RARELY ever get sick. And even when everyone else is getting knocked flat by the latest flu or cold going around, I might get a slight headache, mild sore throat, and in two days it's over with. That stuff DOES work. The food you eat is WAY deficient in things your body needs to keep your immune system in tip top shape. If you want it to help YOU, you have to help IT. So FEED your immune system what it needs to do it's job.

Of course, now that Murphy's Law has heard me say this, next week I'll be flat on my back with the flu from Hell........... :rolleyes:

[deborahbroadus]

Heck, I RARELY go to the doctors for anything. To be quite honest, when they stop calling what they do a "practice", and indicate to me that they are prepared to state that they KNOW what they are doing, well, maybe I'll have a lot more confidence in what they try to prescribe to ME.

BTW, take LOTS of vitamins and mineral supplements. I used to give my animals all kinds of dietary supplements and noticed that where other people were complaining about their animals getting sick or just gradually going downhill after years in captivity, ours just weren't going that route. So DUH! I decided to start taking vitamins and mineral supplements myself. And honestly, I RARELY ever get sick. And even when everyone else is getting knocked flat by the latest flu or cold going around, I might get a slight headache, mild sore throat, and in two days it's over with. That stuff DOES work. The food you eat is WAY deficient in things your body needs to keep your immune system in tip top shape. If you want it to help YOU, you have to help IT. So FEED your immune system what it needs to do it's job.

Of course, now that Murphy's Law has heard me say this, next week I'll be flat on my back with the flu from Hell........... :rolleyes:

(to the bolded) :rofl::rofl:

Vitamins are a great assistance, I agree! Here's hoping you won't be hit by Murphy's Law. for sharing this tidbit. :)

[Lucille]

You know I love you both but if you are holding up vitamins as some sort of crucifix to ward off things like whooping cough or diphtheria or tetanus, I say good luck with that :eek3:

[deborahbroadus]

You know I love you both but if you are holding up vitamins as some sort of crucifix to ward off things like whooping cough or diphtheria or tetanus, I say good luck with that :eek3:

:rofl: I'll take my chances with a hygienic process and vitamins, before I will let Doctors (who are responsible for their own percentages of accidents and deaths) shoot me up with chemicals. I am of a mind, that there's ALWAYS something in it for them, even if we are simply being used as guinea pigs (you will never know if any of us were simply getting placebos for a study to be published after all the participants were dead.:ack2:

As a matter of fact, my understanding of history is that a vast majority of the illness/deaths were more the result of lack of hygiene processes than the body's inability to heal itself.

Cancer was the only (other than incidents when I was a child and unable to make my own decisions) factor that pressured me to allow unknown chemicals in my body...and I surely wish I had went with the surgery only and taken my chances.

[Mister Internet]

Yep, Pertussis on the rise, and I'm sure all the biggies from the past will be back in short order. Thanks to idiot parents who see a scary YouTube video, or buy books from Hollywood has-beens who are trying to remain relevant years after their Playboy heyday, or just repeat things that make them sound more intelligent than they really are... these diseases are making a comeback. An ALARMING comeback.

Self-reliance and blah blah blah blah are all well and good, but to strut around proclaiming that you somehow know BETTER than doctors is a stretch. They are trying to feed their families and save lives, they are not part of some sinister syndicate of ill health. I know many doctors, and I take personal affront at this on their behalf. They are as frustrated as I am with the amount of white-collar idiots that have taken their children's medical health into their own hands in this reckless way. They do not WANT people dying of preventable diseases... it leads to lawsuits, which lead to higher malpractice suits, which raises their ALREADY astronomically high malpractice insurance rates. They have absolutely no vested interest in people remaining unhealthy. Perpetually unhealthy people actually COST doctors money and time in the long run.

It's the year 2012, and these diseases were relegated to the annals of history for a reason. Vaccines worked. They worked awesome. Now, thanks to a bunch of idiot parents that need to blame something for their kids' Autism, we are seeing a comeback. Sad, really.

Who knows, with any luck, maybe we can ALL start dying of heirloom deadly diseases again!

[Shadera]

Went to walgreens Friday to have some passport pics done (going to Africa next year!), and saw that our local store is promoting the whooping cough and shingles (thought of you, Lucille!) vaccinations.

I'm not sure how I feel about pharmacists giving vaccinations. And heck, I'm married to one. Would I let him jab a needle in my arm? No way! I've watched him struggle to open the little packets of Tylenol with the tab you have to tear. :rofl:

I am, though, considering picking up a few "booster" vaccinations from my PCP, on top of what I'll need for the trip.

[Lucille]

They are trying to feed their families and save lives

Thank you

My Dad was a doctor. He grew up in terrible poverty but managed to make it into medical school by hard work. When he graduated, his Dad who by then had a small business, wanted to set my Dad up as a 'Park Avenue ' doctor so he could make a boatload of bucks.
My Dad instead chose to go into cancer research, he made a decent living but was not wealthy.
Yes, there are Park Avenue docs in it just for the money, but there are also a lot of doctors like my Dad, who wanted to do something meaningful with their lives.

pharmacists giving vaccinations. .
The only way to do it, is to do it, for anyone. (BTW that is funny about the Tylenol packets). My son has learned to give himself his own insulin injections. Heck, when I was in nursing school there was no special magic wand waved over us to give us the ability to give injections, we practiced by injecting oranges but that first shot we gave to a real person was scary for us.

[SirenSanJose]

A lot of adults out there are not aware of that fact that the vaccine they got as a kid wears off! I came down with it a while back and trust me if you think a severe case of bronchitis is horrible.. it has nothing on whooping cough. I honestly don't know how kids manage to survive it at all. You can literally break ribs from coughing so hard and long and yes you do eventually reach a stage where you make those scary "whoop" sounds.

There's apparently about a 10% failure rate in the vaccine even WITH a booster. I was immunized as a kid, had a booster about 4 years ago, and still managed to come down with whooping cough about 2 years ago. It was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. I got hairline cracks in 2 ribs and was less than functional for a couple of months. Terrible thing to contract, even as a healthy adult. UGH!

[FireStorm]

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about vaccines. I'm moderately allergic to horse serum (bad enough to make me really sick for anywhere from a few days to two weeks, but apparently not life threatening enough to make the Dr. recommend against it). I'm to the point where I avoid vaccines if at all possible (no flu shot for me). I get a tetanus shot every 10 yrs, but I won't get it more often regardless of what happens. It just makes me sooo sick. My mom grew up next door to a guy who worked on the development of that vaccine, and that was his recommendation. He said in reality it probably lasts more than 10 yrs, but 10 yrs is what it was approved for, and the more I expose myself to horse serum the worse the reaction may get.

[Mister Internet]

I'm not sure how I feel about pharmacists giving vaccinations. And heck, I'm married to one. Would I let him jab a needle in my arm? No way! I've watched him struggle to open the little packets of Tylenol with the tab you have to tear. :rofl:

These are intra-muscular injections, they couldn't be simpler... swab, stab, band-aid. Literally. There's no way to screw them up. :) Now, would I let a pharmacy tech try to find an IV line in my hand? No. :)