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Whooping cough (a PSA)
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Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
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CNN probably isn't the best source of medical info, but I think the article I posted earlier in the thread might shed some light on the various issues relating to the pertussis vaccine. Here's the link again in case you missed it:

https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05...ccination/index.html


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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier

 
Posts: 38222 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
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quote:
Originally posted by piqué:
shingles does cause blisters. a friend got it, accidentally touched his eye, and he got it there and it has permanently damaged his vision. if you get it, be careful to not touch it!



Shingles works from the inside of your body outward. It is caused by chicken pox virus that is lying dormant within the nervous system. You can tell by looking at someone which nerve pathway is involved.

I'm pretty certain you can't spread shingles around on your own body, just as you can't give someone shingles because you have it.

You *can* give someone the chicken pox if they haven't already had it or been vaccinated for it. People who haven't had the chicken pox (on their own or via vaccine) can't get shingles, either.

Detailed explanation and diagram

That said, you do have to be very careful if you have a shingles outbreak on your face, as it can affect the nerves to the eye and damage vision as happened to your friend.

I smacked the top of my head on the corner of a cabinet many years ago, and about three weeks later I developed shingles lesions that started at the point of impact and spread to my face. I saw my ophthalmologist, and soon as she looked at where the lesions were showing up, told me that my eye would be fine because it was a different nerve cluster that was involved.


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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier

 
Posts: 38222 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
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About the shingles vaccine.

quote:
Shingrix should be given in two doses between two and six months apart to adults who are at least 50 years old, the CDC says. The older vaccine, Zostavax, can still be given to adults who are 60 or older, but Shingrix is preferred, according to the agency.

In clinical trials, Shingrix was 96.6 percent effective in adults ages 50 to 59, while Zostavax was 70 percent effective. The differences were even more striking in older age groups: Effectiveness in adults 70 and older was 91.3 percent for Shingrix, compared with 38 percent for Zostavax.

Shingrix also provided longer-lasting protection than Zostavax; the older vaccine's effectiveness waned after the first year.


https://www.npr.org/sections/h...o-adults-avoid-shots


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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier

 
Posts: 38222 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Gadfly
Picture of Lisa
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I thought about this thread the other day, after getting woken up by a coughing fit in the middle of the night for the first time in months. At this point, it has been over a year since my initial infection and I honestly think there's been some kind of permanent damage because I still have coughing fits pretty regularly -- it wasn't bad over the summer, but if I spend any amount of time outside in the cold air, I pay for it by hacking my lungs out for the next several hours.

I saw that they are now "marketing" the whooping cough booster to adults (except it's still the tdap combo, which means I can't get it. Frowner )

https://www.aboutwhoopingcough.com/index.html

There's a map on that site which shows the number of reported cases of whooping cough and it doesn't look that bad (PA had 10-15) - but remember that if you don't go to the doctor and get them to run a test while the bacteria is still active and culturable (meaning within the first two weeks), your case won't be reported (so none of my family's were and that's 5 cases right there!). I would love to see an accurate map.

Anyhow, just wanted to repost my psa to consider getting vaccinated - apparently, at least in my case, the damage from whooping cough can be permanent or at least last a whole lot longer than the 6 months I was told.
 
Posts: 4422 | Location: Suburban Philly, PA | Registered: 30 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Give yourself some time, Lisa. I have found that, for me anyway, coughs can last a VERY long time, and I have to be patient. But that's a really long time. I hope there's no permanent damage.
 
Posts: 45838 | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Mary Anna
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quote:
Originally posted by Lisa:

There's a map on that site which shows the number of reported cases of whooping cough and it doesn't look that bad (PA had 10-15) - but remember that if you don't go to the doctor and get them to run a test while the bacteria is still active and culturable (meaning within the first two weeks), your case won't be reported (so none of my family's were and that's 5 cases right there!). I would love to see an accurate map.



I didn't know that there was a limited time that the culture would detect pertussis. My symptoms were so much like yours that I wonder if I didn't have it last winter. They did the test more than a month after I got sick.


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Mary Anna Evans
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MaryAnna@ermosworld.com

 
Posts: 15565 | Location: Florida | Registered: 22 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
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Big bummer, Lisa, having an apparent relapse of whooping cough!

Until I read this part of your thread, I hadn't realized that having it once does NOT convey lifetime immunity.

Having had it as a fairly little kid (7 or 8) I thought the flip side was at least, I was protected. Will make sure to ask for a booster - also to try to get on the waiting list for Shingrix.)

(I remember whooping way back then, and although I don't recall anything like your nightmare, it WAS very unpleasant. Yes, that very distinctive WHOOOOOP stands out.)

I guess for those who get these illnesses as adults, it seems unspeakably stupid in retrospect to have foregone a vaccine that could have spared one all that major discomfort. I've heard really bad things about shingles - wish they'd get going on their backlog. My now-deceased neighbor suffered greatly from shingles. Since he also had a hereditary disorder which weakened him, I believe the shingles in combination caused his relatively premature death.

Nothing to take a chance on skipping, unless one knows for sure one has some autoimmune hypersensitivity.
(Still baffled and sympathetic about your families' unusual and horrible level of pertussis contracted as adults. Thanks for the heads up!)


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The most dangerous word in the language is "obvious"

 
Posts: 14392 | Location: PA | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Minor Deity
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I wonder if I had whooping cough.

In mid October, I got a mild cold that turned into a terrible cough. It has been six weeks, and I still don’t have full lung capacity.

Thing is, I did have a pertussis booster this summer.

My sister has it now. She is hacking her lungs out.
 
Posts: 19833 | Location: A cluttered house in Metro D.C. | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Gadfly
Picture of Lisa
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Mary Anna - the doc told us that culturing past the 3 week mark from the onset of symptoms will almost always be negative and that for best chance of getting a positive culture, you need to test within the first 2 weeks. Of course, that is in the window where you still think it's just a cold and don't go to the doctor, or if you do, the doctor says it's just a cold and sends you home. So I'd bet that there are very very few positive cultures relative to the actual number of cases.

Cindy - they do say the vaccine has a 20% failure rate -- as in it just plain doesn't work in 20% of people. So who knows. I will say that I don't really feel like my lung capacity is impacted and I never did -- this cough is/was all in my throat - a horrible tickle/scratchiness that I just couldn't shake or suppress. But the whole time I was breathing fine (well, when I wasn't coughing) and I never had any other symptoms -- not even so much as a runny nose. It was all just a cough.

Who knows!
 
Posts: 4422 | Location: Suburban Philly, PA | Registered: 30 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
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quote:
The vaccine for whooping cough doesn’t work as well as it used to, and new research suggests it’s largely because the bacteria behind the disease has mutated.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed lab samples from patients with whooping cough between 2000 and 2013 and found Bordetella pertussis, which causes whooping cough, has gone through genetic changes over time.

That means the current vaccine is not a perfect match to the bacteria. Researchers hope the new data published Wednesday in the journal “Emerging Infectious Diseases” will help change that.

“The genomic data we provide will aid open research toward improved vaccine development and disease control strategies,” the CDC authors wrote in their report.

Infectious disease experts agree.

“The pertussis vaccine is not optimal,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“We’re making the best use of the vaccine, while we’re frantically doing research to make a better one,” said Schaffner. But a new vaccine for whooping cough is nowhere near ready, he said.


https://www.nbcnews.com/health...udy-suggests-n982816


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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier

 
Posts: 38222 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Amanda
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Sounds sensible that there has been a mutation requiring a new and effective vaccine (and booster) for pertussis. How great it will be when the new vaccine comes out!

Also, probably a new test for patients who appear to be suffering from pertussis but who are not diagnosed as such (why so many of you have had and heard of people having apparent -
awful - pertussis while being told the titer comes back reading differently).

I confess to having a ghastly expectation that this new vaccine when available will come out at a nightmarish price on account of the new patent.

Isn't this the way of Big Pharma and those who are permitted by them, to purchase patents and thereby gouge vulnerable patients?

As if the recent insulin gouge weren't enough!?

Speaking as someone long-suffering from TRD (Treatment Resistent Depression), I was very excited to learn that the ketamine trials for depression have finally proven effective.

Within days, the banner headlines reporting this breakthrough announced (without the fanfare it deserves), what the actual cost of treatment will be - several thousand $/month. (I'm blocking out the exact figure).

Of course, that doesn't mean depressed people overseas won't be able to afford relief...while those in the US shell out for most of the R&D (or in most cases, just stay depressed.) Curse Frowner Bang Head


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The most dangerous word in the language is "obvious"

 
Posts: 14392 | Location: PA | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
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With grandkids on the way, Sharon and I both had to get vaccinated so we can be allowed in the hospital for the delivery. I don’t know if this is a hospital requirement or something the Moms want but we got our shots last week.

Hope they work.


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 35084 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
What Life?
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For reporting purposes alone, I'd think their would be test for antibodies. They could test for IgM earlier, and IgG later in the disease course. No therapeutic help but def helps w epidemiology.


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OT's ball 'n chain

 
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