# # # 19981119

Subject: Pre-Y2K Vaccinations: Cholera, Typhoid, ...

Vaccinations ( inoculations ) against Cholera, Typhoid, etc., before they're not available ( run on them or government edict ) will be prudent. ( Look at the plagues plaguing folks surviving "Mitch." )

Which ones and how to schedule them? ( Going to Vietnam, troops took all shots before departing for 1 month leave prior to arriving in-country. I'll never forget it! Sicker than a dog, the whole time! )

Incubation period for each? Duration of coverage?

Walk-in to public Health Departments?

Costs?

Any nurses, doctors that can advise?

Regards, Bob Mangus # # #

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus@mail.netquest.com), November 19, 1998

Answers

Cholera, Typhoid jabs are nowhere near 100%. Maybe worth something, but no substitute for knowing how to sterilize your water. (The poor souls left after Mitch are either ignorant or have lost everything that they could use to sterilise water)

Sterilising agent: bleach. So cheap it's almost free (one bottle will treat a LOT of water!) Or, boil before drinking, if you've got the fuel to do so. If all else fails, drink roof runoff. It may contain some nasties courtesy of bird droppings, but cholera is unlikely.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), November 19, 1998.

I was thinking about contacting the local INS/ Passport office, telling them that I'm planning a trip to Honduras. I'm sure they would know. I will look for the info on line...

-- Arewyn (nordic@northnet.net), November 19, 1998.

This is your RN speaking:

Number One: Hmmm. Haven't we already been practicing looking up these things in our newly acquired Merck Manual? Didn't we actually check on page 110, on the section describing cholera -- and page 102 on typhoid? (You did mean typhoid, didn't you? ... since typhus is a different disease carried by lice....) Are we thinking that those pretty new books are just for looks????

(alright class, settle down...)

Number Two: Even the Merck points out that immunization for cholera is unreliable, and for typhoid can have severe reaction side effects (but there is a new oral vaccine with better results).

Number Three: Both subheads recommend BOILING WATER, WASHING VEGETABLES as primary preventatives. What it didn't say, though, is something we also know: CHLORINE KILLS BOTH CHOLERA AND TYPHOID -- that's why we have so few outbreaks in our own municipal areas. Store bleach.

Number Four: Sorry for the yelling. I'm a nurse. I'm supposed to.

Anita Evangelista

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), November 19, 1998.

Thanks for the info on avoiding cholera and typhoid. But what about other diseases? For instance -

I've never had chicken pox. I'd think getting vaccinated would be a good idea since having the disease as an adult is no fun. I don't care to find out the hard way.

Hepatitis A and B vaccines would probably also be a good idea since these virii are pretty durable. I've had the Hep B vaccine. It's a series of three shots given about 3-6 months apart each (hint, start now). My insurance did not cover the cost of $70 per shot. I think Hep A is two shots given 6-12 months apart.

I get a flu shot every fall. If they're available next fall I'll probably get one again. It's not necessarily a life-threatening disease but I'd hate to come down with it early in 2000.

-- Melinda Gierisch (gieriscm@hotmail.com), November 19, 1998.

Chickenpox in adults is a very, very serious disease -- it can make you deathly ill with (literally) months of recouperation, plus leave BAD consequences that you're stuck with the rest of your days. If I didn't have CP as a kid, I would definitely get the vaccine.

Hep B can be acquired from blood exposure (hint: anyone can carry this disease, including your friendly neighbor who asks you to bandage that cut on his arm). It is most "easily" acquired by needle sticks (think: suturing your neighbor's cut arm), but sex is also a pretty effective route (think: monogamy). Hep B can leave you with a lingering weakness, stomach pains, fevers, plus make you a carrier -- and it can give you liver cancer some years down the line. There is some new information coming out that the Hep B vaccine MAY contribute to a few people getting "autoimmune" diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. Considering the possibilities, you can make the call yourself. (I work with the sick and some have Hep B, so I got the series of 3 shots. I'd rather have bad joints than a bad liver.)

Hep A is generally self-limiting in otherwise healthy people ... more of an inconvenience than life-threatening. But, considering the possibilities of exposure to fecal material (i.e.: poop), it's worth thinking about. I haven't had this shot.

Vaccinations to have FOR SURE:

Tetanus

Measles, mumps, whooping cough (hey, you adults with long-term low-level coughing "fits" -- you could be spreading whooping cough to your neighborhood kids).

Rabies (maybe...if you're exposed to lots of animals...veterinarians get these shots)

Pneumonia (if you're over 50 or so, or have other lung ailments)

Tetanus

Tetanus

Tetanus Anita Evangelista

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), November 19, 1998.

Think about this one -

Pneumonia shot - It's good for 5 years.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (La) (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 19, 1998.

Think about growable alternatives -- herbs and other natural medicines. Aromatherapy, etc.

I usually get the flu each year, the most I'll take is asprin. Don't do doctors, and haven't for twenty years. The one year I was daily practicing meditation, I didn't get sick at all. *Sigh* got'a get more disciplined. Groan!

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 19, 1998.

Bob, I urge you to seriously consider the information at www.909shot.com and www.909shot.com/hepatitisb.htm before receiving any form of vaccinations. What do you think they plan to genocide with? Two books that are well worth your time and money, "A Shot in the Dark" and "The Millennium Meltdown" Another book, if you can find it "America Under Siege" Books are different topics but, the same ultimate plan. Sincerely, Bridget

-- Bridget Works (sworks@internetpro.net), November 20, 1998.

If you've never had chicken pox as a kid, definitly get the vaccine. And make sure your kids are vacinated too. Chicken pox is not only an awful disease to go through, it is also a potentialy very dangerous one. The virus is a herpes virus, which never really leaves your body after the visible outbrake is over, but sleeps in your nerves and is re-awakened later in life when your immune system is compromised or weakened. Shingles older people get stems from that.

Chicken pox can be fatal to young and old if they're immune system can't handle it. It can cause heart problems, and many other things. Get that vaccine for sure if you've never had chicken pox. It's highly contagious. Y2k conditions could very well agravate the spread, like weakened immune systems due to poorer nutrition, close quarters etc. This vaccine is safe. Although it's only been out for just over a year, I've been part of the research in the US since 1983, with my 3 kids. We all got the experimental shot, which had been studied and used in Japan for 15 years already by 1983 and found effective. All 3 of my kids have been exposed to kids with infectious stage of chicken pox, and all 3 haven't contracted it. Myself either.

And I second Anita's emphasis on tetanus, make sure it's current (boosters every 5 years recommended.) Tetanus is contracted from dirt in open wounds, i.e., cuts with rusty objects such as saws and nails; soil/earth in the wound from a bike spill; bites from animals and many other ways. Children's tetanus shots are usually current as the pediatrician keeps tab on these, but adults usually don't go back for them unless they've had a nasty accident that brings them to the ER.

Chris, another nurse.

-- Chris (Catsy@pon.com), November 20, 1998.

I would not be one to run out and start getting vaccinated for every potential disease that I could think of. There are relatively new studies out that may link some vaccinations to our modern ailments like chronic fatigue syndrome. This widespread ailment has symptoms very much like a surpressed version of polio and it surfaced just about the time we started vacinating for that disease.

I am not saying that all vaccinations are bad; goodness knows that they have helped us defeat some previously prevelant diseases. But, every year the pharmaceutical companies seem to come up with a new one; either for us humans or Puff and Spot.

Take the new, Hepatitis B vacination now required for all school age children. This disease is primarily transmitted by sex. Yes, needles work, and you could get it if you were bitten by a "carrier" or somehow got the blood of a carrier's wound in your mouth or an open cut. But what are the odd's of this? My kindergartener doesn't have sex, she doesn't shoot up, she lives in a middle class neighborhood with a miniscule to -0- % of that disease present. I'll take the chance that she will not be bitten by an un-knowing carrier of Hepatitis B. She's in far more danger of being hit by a car while crossing the street that contracting Hepatitis. Yet this new vaccination is mandatory; a law.

I feel we are playing with fire when we mindlessly heap these foriegn agents into young (and old) bodies. How many sicknesses are related to immune difficiency now? How many kids are ADD and Hyper Active? How may kids have asthma? How many have food, dust and chemical allergies? How many more chemicals to we eat, drink and breath than we did 30 or 40 years ago? How much can the immune system take?

I believe that the real push behind this new vaccine is $$$$$$. Now who out there is good enough with math to figure out just how much money a pharmaceutical company makes when a new vaccine becomes mandatory; hundred's of millions? In the long run billions? Imagine owning a company that gets the sole-source purchase order to sell products to every single child in the United States. And, the children (or their parents) are forced by law to buy your product! What a Sale! These companies spend tens of millions lobbying our governmental groups and conducting surveys and studies to prove how badly we all need their drugs. I once knew someone who worked for a huge pharmaceutical company. With regard to studies, she said, "First we determine the results we want, then we perform the study."

Also, let us be reminded of the men and woman who fought for us in Desert Storm. They were forced to have an Anthrax vaccine. A vaccine untested on humans. At least one officer, a woman and mother of 4, was put in the brig for refusing to take it.

After Desert Storm, hundreds, maybe thousands of soldiers came down with a strange new sickness. They all complained of headaches, dizziness,fatigue, & other symptoms. An RN that was stationed in the Middle East during Desert Storm also had these symtoms and she started researching the problem. She made contact with many of the sickly vets and she had strong evidence of a tie to the vaccine. When she approached the government, they denied that the vets were even sick! When she posted information detrimental to the governements position on here Web site, it mysteriously disappeared (on several occasions).

The government was, and maybe still is, toying with the idea of making the anthrax vaccine mandatory for all U.S. citizens; just in case Saddam or some other crazy hits us with biological warfare. Well, personally, I say, no thanks.

We currently live in a society sicker than any one before. Maybe we live longer but were not healther and we are hooked up in the end. Drug stores boast isles and isles of medications for every imaginable malady; hundreds of thousands of them. Who takes all this stuff?

I live in a relatively small town and within 5 miles of my house there are three hospitals. What a tribute to our life style.

This is an issue that is too important to just take someone else's word for; not mine or anyone elses. Search for all the information you can about vaccines and the various diseases before you make up your mind. Naturally, if they are mandatory by law, you are forced to have them; but think twice about optional ones.

One last note: excess Chlorine in water has been linked to higher rates of cancer. Not long ago, I was E-mailed by a very knowledgable fellow who explained the whole water purifying process to me and recommended Hydrogen Peroxide as a safer alternative. I'd have to look up the specifics if anyone was interested. I would definetly use bleach as the #1 cleanser though. It can even be used to wash fruits and vegetables (about 1 cup per sink full of water).You must rinse throughly with lots of clean water until the smell is entirely gone. This may not be a viable option if Y2K limits our water supply. Wishing you all a great Thanksgiving!

-- Meg Davis (Meg9999@aol.com), November 26, 1998.