Is getting the H1N1 flu shot a good idea?

[twopack]

My workplace will be making the H1N1 flu vaccine available to employees.  I'm guessing I'd qualify as high risk now

I've heard some warnings about who should or should not take the vaccine.  Since MS already has my immune system hyped up and attacking my own body, is it a good thing to kick it into a higher gear with a vaccine?

Anyone have accurate information to share?

~Mary

[Lulu54]

here's one from 2009 with a great explanation ....

[twopack]

I went ahead and got the H1N1 vaccine last night.  I'm not sure if it was the serum itself or the technique used to administer it, but boy did it give a huge arm ache.  I went to sleep last night with a heat pack to my arm.  It kind of put a scare in me but all is fine this morning.

[Mand125]

We got our letters offering the shot last week (here in the UK).

My daughter (who also has MS) has already made her appointment to have it. I haven't yet.

My problem is that as a strict vegetarian the way it is made goes against my beliefs. I guess I am opening up a whole new can of worms here, especially as probably every pill I have ever taken (and maybe the betaseron) has been tested on animals at some point. Maybe it makes me a hypocrite.

I just don't know what to do.

Mand

[Udkas]

I will be ringing my MS Specialist tomorrow to ask his opinion for me!  I am about to start a new job in the Health Industry and I think it would be important for me to have the vaccine but seeing some cases of TM have been caused due to vaccines (very rare), and I still vaccinate all my children but for myself I do think I should check to see if it's the right thing to do.

Udkas/

[Guitar_grrrl]

I went ahead and got mine today, after going into 3 patient isolation rooms with gown, gloves, and N95 mask.  Man, these folks were SICK!!
Pleural effusions, pericardial effusions, thankfully no valvular vegetations...

I'm willing to risk it - I'm in a flair right now anyway.

Be Well! (as Lulu says...)
Guitar_grrrl

[Quixotic1]

The recommendation by the majority of MS specialists is to get the vaccine.  Get the shot only and not the nasal mist as mentioned above.

Twopack - here is another discussion of this

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Multiple-Sclerosis/ANTI-Anti-Immunization-RANT/show/1086302

I want to comment on the concern that we have heard from members and from some doctors:  that people with MS should not get vaccines because they ramp up the immune system.  Well....this is true.  All vaccines stimulate the immune system in order for us to make antibodies against the disease.  And yes, this stimulation can lead to MS relapses which are usually fairly mild and short.

But, the point that I want everyone to realize is this:  An infection stimulates the immune system in the same way as the immunization, BUT IN A FAR GREATER WAY!  If you get a flu shot you get a limited, finite dose of the antigens that stimulate the immune system for a few days.  If you get the flu, you have millions of individual flu viruses constantly all replicating and producing a FAR greater stimulation of the immune system.  This goes on and on for as long as 8 or 9 days.  It's like taking one dose of oral antibiotic versus getting the antibiotic by continuous drip for more than a week.  The flu itself is likely to cause the mother of all relapses.

Not gettting  the vaccine would only be helpful in preventing a relapse if you could GUARANTEE that you wouldn't get the disease.  what?  It is a very short-sighted look at the problem.

The other thing to consider when/if you decide not to get the vaccine is this:  If you get this strain of the flu (and it is one of the most contagious strains of flu ever seen) who ELSE might you infect?  Are there any high risk people in your circle of contacts?  Are there infants, pregnant women, elderly, people with asthma, emphysema or COPD who you might infect?

The decision to get the vaccine is an individual one, but it's consequences are not limited to ourselves.  Our infection can wind up hurting someone else.  

I will be getting the vaccine to protect my elderly parents and my sister who has asthma, and, of course me.  I have had the flu in the past and do not ever EVER want to repeat that experience.  Anyone who says a few days of headache, fever and muscle aches from a vaccine is worse than the flu has never had the real influenza!  

People are well within their rights to refuse the flu vaccine, but there is no good evidence that we as a population have been over-vaccinated.  That is pseudoscience of the highest degree being touted by people who do not really understand the nature of the immune system.  Yes, many of them are celebrities and potiticians, but they have let themselves be fooled by the difference between diseases that appear "associated" in time with vaccines and diseases that are "caused" by those vaccines.  My opinion.


It is impossible to get the flu from an inactivated vaccine.  Anyone who says they did was actually incubating the virus when they got the vaccine and the vaccine did not have enough time to give them any protection.

There are also those who must refrain from getting some or all immunizations, so I agree that this is something that should be dicsussed with your doctor if there are such concerns.


Quix

[cainer]

  i dont think ill get the vaccine  been over vaccinated!!   we have about twice the vaccines as u.k. ??  my opinion       b-well  tick

[Lulu54]

Repeats are fine - you just will find more if you read the other threads about immunizations.  

The bottom line is check with your own doctor.  Each person here is quite the individual and there is no one answer that works for 100% of the people here.

be well,
Lulu

ps - in the search this community box on the right side of this page you can type in topics that you want to find in old posts.  

[twopack]

Sorry for the repeat.  I had a feeling it wouldn't be a first time asked question but I'm not familiar enough with the forum yet to search and find many topics.

Thanks especially for the reminder about the nasal route, Alex.

I'm a believer in vaccines too (being a child of the fifties when having all those 'usual childhood illnesses' was the normal course).  I took the seasonal flu vaccine without problems so I'll probably look into this one too.  I was miserable for several days with some form of whatever sickness is attacking so many people around here.  No fever, so I guess it wasn't flu.  I don't need anything worse.

[HVAC]

The MS Society Annual meeting Forum last week said it was safe and a good idea unless you have some other underlying condition you need to discuss with your Doctor.

I have asthma and MS and will get it it when it is available.

No MS patient should get nasal immunizations they contain live virus. The shots have the killed virus.

I have talked too many who got the flu and felt the full force.

I had a bad flu in the sixties and never want to repeat the experience. I also had German Measles, Measles,Mumps , and Chicken Pox twice because there were no vaccines. I am a believer in immunization.

Alex

[JonGalt]

Check out
ANTI Anti-Immunization RANT
Oct 25, 2009

I didn't get it,  I got the flu and have been out for a week.  I feel like I have been hit by a bus, I am finally getting over it.   Don't know if it was H1N1, but whatever it was it could not have been worse then a couple shots.

[PastorDan]

We've discussed this at length in another thread here somewhere, if you want to look around.  Myself, I'd like to pretend to be your co-worker for a day, just so I icould get the shot.  (Not particularly happy with the day job all the time either; what kind of work do you do, and where? ;>)  Hiring lately?)  I am undx, though, and I also know that there are a few on this forum who would think I was making the wrong choice.