Is your body equipped to survive with antibodies?

I'm not talking about Antrax or Smallpox here. I'm talking about "classical" vaccines like tetanus and diphtheria.

People think you should get a vaccine for tetanus only after you step on a rusty nail or you injure yourself in the field but during a disaster like Katrina this would certainly not be possible. After leafing through the Canadian immunization guide I found out that they recommend that you get a vaccine against tetanus and diphtheria every 10 years. So I'm planning on getting my immunizations up to date.

Another pre-exposure vaccine that looks important for outdoor enthusiasts is Rabies which is facultative according to the Canadian guide. Are you immunized against it? With all the pets stranded in NO or having to sleep in unusual open air places there's a small risk of being bitten by a bat with rabies for exemple. Do you think it is worth getting immunized against rabies?

Apart from biological terrorist attacks related vaccines and travelers related vaccines, what would be useful ones to get for disaster preparedness and wilderness survival? Cholera looks like a useful one in a flooded situation but I guess if you are wary about the water and food you take you don't need a vaccine against it. Any thoughts, comments, informations?

Thanks
François

I hadn't thought of that. What's a comprehensive list of vaccinations and other medical maintenance that could and should be done before something like this?

I guess it's obvious, but the better shape you're in, the better you'll be able to cope with whatever's happening. Eat right, exercise, blah, blah. It's boring, sweaty unpleasant and unimportant until you have to walk out 10+ miles because you no longer have a house or a car and the buses aren't running. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Do today what others won't, so you can do tomorrow what others can't.

In this event, Hepatitus is a must. There are several vaccines for Hep a and Hep B, but Hep C is a concern, and there is no approved vaccine. In this latitude, sure, tet and dip, but also now typhoid, yellow fever and typhus. Go to the state department web site and look at recomended vaccinations for travel to 3rd world tropical countries.

You cannot vaccinate against e-coli, exactly, but there is a vaccine out there, now available only for health care workers, that provides limited protection.

CDC is worried about malaria, for what it's worth.

Sorry. I didn't reply precisely. Goto http://www.cdc.gov/node.do/id/0900f3ec8005df1f
for a concise list.

Ow. Owowowow. Dang.

I don't like needles to start with. For that many shots... can I at least get a local? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Interesting that they are still quoting the "every ten years" for tetanus vaccination. Here it used to be every 5 years, but I recently went for a booster due to an upcoming trip and was told that they now consider you protected for life if you have had 5 tetanus vaccinations.

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/recs/adult-schedule.htm

Vaccines for adults include
  Tetanus-Diphtheria Vaccine (all adults, every 10 years)
  Influenza (Flu) Vaccine (adults 50 and older)
  Pneumococcal Vaccine (adults 65 and older)
  Hepatitis B Vaccine (adults at risk)
  Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) Vaccine (susceptible adults)
  Varicella (chickenpox) Vaccine (susceptible adults)
  Vaccines for travelers (see CDC travel web site for specifics)



   

I can't seem to go that long w/o getting hurt, and every time I'm in an ER they stick me again.

Yet I found this :

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/vis/vis-rabies.pdf

It says that there's a vaccine made from killed rabies virus.

I know Louis Pasteur is the guy who discovered the first antirabies treatment. I will talk about what you said when I go for my immunization update. Thanks for the info.

Frankie

Check out the CDC web site on rabies vaccine in humans:

CDC Rabies Vaccine in Humans

CDC Rabies Vaccine Info

Pete

I think that the only documented human, active rabies case was in Harlingen or Brownsville, Texas in 1998. Rabies is such a remote threat as to account for nothing. Look out for Hep B.

But stay away from crtters with a stripe down their back.

I was something that crossed my mind a few times, but I never did anything about - next time I'm at the MD (early October) I'm going to ask for the Tetnius at a minimum (it'll probably be DPT - a 3 in 1) - not sure on the rabies or others - we'll see

In New Orleans they are also worried about Hepatitis A and B from dead bodies. A less likely bug disease might be tuberculosis.

Same here... and I can never remember when my last shot was so every time I go to ER to get stitched up after being stuck with a rusty something or other then they stick me again just to be safe.

Hey gang, I am back in Baghdad now.

I got my MMR vaccination only because I didn't have my shot record from before.

I already had tetanus shot.

I took oral Typhoid vaccine. More effective than the shot and no needles, but makes you a little ill.

Hep A and Hep B as a Twin RX combination, so only one needle, but you have to go back for two boosters within 18 months. I missed mine, so will have to start over.

Up north they are doing Malaria treatments, but it is tricky. The meds you have to take can make you Psychotic.

Those are the most common shots internationally. Cholera is on the list, but not needed here according to CDC.

Physical fitness is probably the biggest factor in surviving disease. You are bound to catch something. Your condition will determine how well you can survive. E coli doesn't kill everyone, but will make everyone very sick.

Every time I got a flu shot, I ended up catching the flu later on so bad I nearly have to be hospitalized.

Just out from NIH:

Reuters Health Information
Vaccine Cuts Bacterial Disease in US
Thursday, September 15, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In 2003, routine immunization of US children with a vaccine that protects against bacterial infection prevented nearly 30,000 cases of severe disease, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

The 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) vaccine protects against a variety of infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, many of which, such as meningitis or pneumonia, can be fatal.

"Routine use of PCV7 in young children has reduced the (rate of severe pneumococcal infections) in children and adults, and these reductions have increased since 2001," Dr. Deron C. Burton and colleagues note in the CDC's Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report. The use of the vaccine was tied to a drop in all pneumococcal infections, not just those that the vaccine was specifically designed to combat, the so-called vaccine-type infections.

In 2000, PCV7 was licensed for routine use in children under 5 years of age. In the years preceding licensure, the rate of vaccine-type infections among young children was 80 cases per 100,000 population. By 2003, this rate had dropped 94 percent to just 4.6 cases per 100,000 population.

However, it is not just the direct protective effects that make PCV7 important from a public health standpoint, but also the "herd immunity" that occurs.

Herd immunity occurs when a large proportion of the population is vaccinated against a particular microbe, which, in turns, makes the odds of infection among unvaccinated individuals low. In the present analysis, the herd immunity effect was actually twice as large as the direct protective effect.

Of the 29,599 vaccine-type infections prevented by PCV7 in 2003, just 9140 were through direct protective effects. The rest of the prevented infections were the result of herd immunity.

Outside of the target population, the greatest declines in both vaccine-type and overall pneumococcal infections occurred in people who were at least 65 years of age, the report indicates.

SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 16, 2005.

benjammin, are you allergic to eggs? The flu vaccine is cultured in eggs so anyone allergic to eggs could have a reaction. But it's impossible to "get the flu" from a flu shot--the shot does not contain the complete flu virus. I know that many people say this and I don't discount the symptoms, but you're not actually coming down with the flu.

Another possibility (just my guess) is that you have a particularly aggressive immune system that really kicks in when you're exposed to the flu-like proteins in the flu shot and makes you feel awful. It's sort of the other extreme of the problem with many elderly getting a flu shot--their immune systems don't mount a sufficiently strong defense against the flu shot, so they aren't as fully protected as a younger person.

Hepatitis A and B are a good shot to get that many older people do not normally have, but for these other Third World diseases? Chances you'll ever encounter them here are tiny, even in disaster scenarios, and some shots/meds carry their own risks. As benjammin noted, anti-malaria meds are associated with pysch problems. If you've gotten the usual recommended shots, then I think you're pretty well covered. Personally, in a mass shelter situation, I'd worry most about a measles epidemic. Highly contagious and childhood vaccinations do lose their effectiveness into adulthood (measles is the first "M" in the MMR shot).

And many of these "travellers" immunizations require multiple visits, can be difficult to get in your area, and can be expensive.

In a disaster scenario where you have already had the usual shots, I think that getting adequest rest, drinking clean water, avoiding large crowds, and following standard food and waste sanitation principles will allow you to avoid getting sick from almost all of these nasty bugs. Oh, and take adequate precautions around other people's wounds and/or dead bodies to minimize contact with possibly infectious blood and body fluids.

Soap and water are marvelous weapons against disease. Yikes, another reason to store even MORE water! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

No allergies to eggs. My problem is that after getting a flu shot, say two or three months later, I will contract the flu really bad. This last bout a year and half ago my doctor nearly hospitalized me. I got the shot in November, and was sick in February, also contracting secondary infection and requiring two antibiotics and inhalers for nearly two weeks. Similar has happened in the past. No more flu vaccines for me for a while.

Along with soap and water, sanitizing gel and clean towels are useful. Can't always get to water, but I always have hand sanitizer and pants legs handy.