Flu Vaccine...

[Mizfit]

Do you get it?

There seems to be alot of literature in the doctors office about an upcoming influenza panepidemic

[Ufa]

I have a Doc that has friends doing research in this area. The most likely
out come is that if it crosses into humans it will loose it's potency. This
is just scare stuff. However, if it leads to a faster way to manuf. vaccine
I'm all for it. All we hear about is the worst possible outcome.

[PROTEINSHAKE]

HELL NO! I dont think its beneficial for ANY reason. If you are healthy you shouldnt need it. IMO.

[Ufa]

HELL NO! I dont think its beneficial for ANY reason. If you are healthy you shouldnt need it. IMO.

Are you saying NOT to get flu shot?

[needmorestrength]

of course they have lots of info promoting the flu shot. Means more money for them!

[PROTEINSHAKE]

Are you saying NOT to get flu shot?

yes-thats what I'm saying. sorry, I just dont believe in all these vaccinations they are giving today..

[Phreak101]

Do you get it?

There seems to be alot of literature in the doctors office about an upcoming influenza panepidemic

They say that every year. The shots cost roughly $25, yet the culture itself plus syringe costs much less than that.

Business is business, so of course they are going to push flu shots, just like a department store pushes it's seasonal fashions. IMO, completely unnecessary. Save your $$ unless it's free.

[PROTEINSHAKE]

they were giving them out free @ the local drugstore & I just had left the gym...the doctor said- are you here for your flu shot?? I said, you're a doctor, you know its not necessary for a healthy person....he smiled & said-- you are right & very smart,he smiled & said have a good day. that was all I needed to NOT get it & NEVER get it.

[notorious_mem]

have you ever wondered if the government wanted to use us as guinee pigs the flu vaccine would be a perfect way to see how wee handle different vaccines,drugs,disease,anything.Sorry it just came to me when i read the title.lol

[zimmy]

I don't see the point of using a vaccine for one or 2 types of strains of the flu when there are 100's of others. Waste of time :P

[Doc.Sust]

it is a waste, unless you are already sickly or elderly, you dont need a flu shot. hey i am all for vaccinations that are needed(polio,DPT,rubella etc) but not these yearly nonsense vacinations.they are a joke.

[Mizfit]

They say that every year. The shots cost roughly $25, yet the culture itself plus syringe costs much less than that.

Business is business, so of course they are going to push flu shots, just like a department store pushes it's seasonal fashions. IMO, completely unnecessary. Save your $$ unless it's free.

i got one for free.. so no biggie.. only reason i really got it is because the chicks in my office get sick alot

[Hackamaniac]

I usually get one every year..
I have a weak immune system

[JohnboyF]

i got one for free.. so no biggie.. only reason i really got it is because the chicks in my office get sick alot

OHIP....

[Mizfit]

OHIP....

yah i guess its different in the states etc

[Prada]

unless you are already sickly or elderly, you dont need a flu shot. hey i am all for vaccinations that are needed(polio,DPT,rubella etc) but not these yearly nonsense vacinations.they are a joke.

Exactly if you have a normal immune system then you can naturally ward off the strains. Unless your immune system is supressed(naturally or due to drugs) your body can naturally fight off the different strains. Just get antibodies and white blood cell count checked, if everything is normal there is no use really. Abnormal levels, perhaps then it would be beneficial

[RuhlFreak55]

Do you get it?

There seems to be alot of literature in the doctors office about an upcoming influenza panepidemic

hell no never had ANY vaccine in my life as a matter of fact....

[RuhlFreak55]

they were giving them out free @ the local drugstore & I just had left the gym...the doctor said- are you here for your flu shot?? I said, you're a doctor, you know its not necessary for a healthy person....he smiled & said-- you are right & very smart,he smiled & said have a good day. that was all I needed to NOT get it & NEVER get it.

rofl......creepy eh?

[spywizard]

heck no they are worthless..

I got my 1st flu shot in 1982.. had the worst flu ever (I was in the AF)

got it the next year.. it was required.. same result.. out for 2 weeks..

and i haven't had one since, and when i do get the flu, about 1x per year it lasts for 1-3 days.. mega dose vit C baby..

so is the flu shot a good thing.. probably for some people.. the weak, feable, the young and old...

[almostgone]

I have to take a yearly influenza vaccination and a pneumonia vaccination every 3 years.


AG

[wascaptain5214]

i dont get them. they are offered free at work. i sometimes wonder what the government shot into me during the first gulf war.

[RuhlFreak55]

i dont get them. they are offered free at work. i sometimes wonder what the government shot into me during the first gulf war.

u prolly don't wanna know.....the government does lotsa sneaky ass shit

[RA]

I get mine for free too so I do it. Its just one more stick and it cant hurt.

[Rye_guy]

Ya I work outside on the water, and have to share a crewboat goin in and outta town everyday with like 15 guys. so they get sick, everyone gets sick. Its almost a must for me, otherwise Id be sick so many times each year.
thank god here in canada we get our flu shots taken care of. lol

[Phreak101]

i got one for free.. so no biggie.. only reason i really got it is because the chicks in my office get sick alot

Honestly Miz everyone I know that get's them gets the flu anyway. I never
get them and I don't get the flu...ever.

Stick with hihg Vitamin C intake, lots of sleep and wash those hands!

[collar]

nope i dont get flu shot.

[DNoMac]

i dont get them. they are offered free at work. i sometimes wonder what the government shot into me during the first gulf war.

I have to get one every year (military), but at least it's free. They poke us with all kinds of shit. When I went over seas, I had to get small pox which was really nasty. They strongly pushed anthrax vaccine, but didn't require it. I said fvck that...

[Doc.Sust]

heck no they are worthless..

I got my 1st flu shot in 1982.. had the worst flu ever (I was in the AF)

got it the next year.. it was required.. same result.. out for 2 weeks..

and i haven't had one since, and when i do get the flu, about 1x per year it lasts for 1-3 days.. mega dose vit C baby..

so is the flu shot a good thing.. probably for some people.. the weak, feable, the young and old...

alot of times the vacines can actualy end up giving you the flu!LOLthat is probably what happened to you in 82

[cfiler]

I haven't had one in afew years. I usually get really sick when I get the flu shot. Worse that a normal flu.

I may get one next year though, because I should qualify for a free one.

I'm not going to pay to get sick though.

[RuhlFreak55]

hell no never had ANY vaccine in my life as a matter of fact....

what does no one believe me?

[Doc.Sust]

what does no one believe me?

i believe you,i know some people who's parents were dead set against vaccinations and didnt get there kids vaccinated, and they are all fine, not that agree with this 100% but they do make some valid points. alot of kids that come from a homeopathic background(alternative medicine) do not get vaccinated were as those who come from alopathic(general medicine) get vaccinated

[RuhlFreak55]

homeopathic.....that's those crazy pills mom used to make me put under my tongue......

[Mizfit]

An article from MSN

Antibiotic-resistant germs are showing up in hospitals around the country—and in the playroom or gym down the street. Here's how to keep you and your family safe.

One summer morning in 2004, Susanne Petrosky, 37, of Perkasie, PA, woke up feeling feverish. It was a month after she'd given birth to her third child, and one touch of her left breast—hot, swollen, tender—told her it was infected. She knew the drill, having been through it with her second baby. She called her doctor, picked up a prescription for the antibiotic clindamycin, and took it faithfully for the full 7 days. No more breast infection.

Then the diarrhea started, with cramping so bad it made her recent labor pains seem mild. She made an appointment to see her doctor and got on the Internet. "I typed in clindamycin and side effects and it came right up—severe, sometimes fatal, diarrhea," she says. On the phone, her doctor was reassuring. That was on a Thursday. She spent much of the weekend lying on the bathroom floor; on Monday morning her sister drove her to the doctor. "He took one look at me," Petrosky says, "and told us to go straight to the emergency room."

Petrosky had picked up a dangerous new strain of an old bug: Clostridium difficile. The bacteria, which produces toxins in the intestine, is common—when people on antibiotics end up with diarrhea, C. difficile is often to blame. Generally, once they've finished taking the drugs, the diarrhea clears up on its own. But the new strain is much nastier than normal. It churns out 20 times the colon-damaging toxins as the older version, causing severe intestinal inflammation, or colitis, and is resistant to several important antibiotics.

A Toxic Stomach Bug
When Petrosky got sick, Canadian hospitals had already reported more than 200 deaths from C. difficile—toxins had eaten right through the walls of patients' colons. Many American hospitals were experiencing similar outbreaks, and the hypervirulent strain had begun to infect people in the general community. Since then, the situation has only gotten worse.

Experts have long warned against the overuse of antibiotics because of the possibility that bacteria would develop resistance to the drugs we use to kill them. Now, researchers say, some of their fears have come to pass. The CDC estimates that of the approximately 2 million bacterial infections Americans acquire in hospitals each year, 70% are resistant to at least one of the drugs commonly used against them. Why that's scaring the experts: If standard drugs don't work, doctors sometimes have to turn to more potent—and more toxic—alternatives. In some cases, those last-resort antibiotics have caused irreversible liver or kidney problems or lasting pain from nerve damage. In others, people have died for lack of an effective treatment. The CDC says that drug resistance kills 70,000 Americans each year—more than car accidents and homicides combined.

"The superbugs are here," says Martin J. Blaser, MD, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the chair of New York University Medical School's department of medicine. "And it doesn't take a crystal ball to see that even more problems are coming."

Scientists are trying to develop new bacteria-fighting drugs, but that process takes decades. In the meantime, we have to defend ourselves. It's crucial to be able to recognize the warning signs of a superbug infection, or, even better, prevent one. Here are four of the most dangerous of these germs and how leading experts say you can protect yourself.When Petrosky got to the hospital, doctors immediately put her on extrapowerful antibiotics. She improved, but her right arm went numb from medicine-induced nerve damage; when her physicians switched drugs, she relapsed. It took more than 9 weeks to get her out of danger. After her recovery, her 4-year-old son and a neighbor went through similar bouts of illness. The neighbor had to be hospitalized.

The number of new cases of C. difficile—associated colitis among US hospital patients has doubled over the past 5 to 10 years, to as many as 500,000 a year, reports CDC medical epidemiologist L. Clifford McDonald, MD. The infection rate outside hospitals appears to have increased many times over, as well. And the death rate has skyrocketed: from less than 2% to as high as 17%.

Prevent It

Don't badger your doctor for unnecessary antibiotics. Remember: Antibiotics don't work against viral infections such as colds or flus.

Ask about alternatives if your doctor suggests long-term antibiotics for a chronic bacterial infection such as acne. (Try remedies like benzoyl peroxide cream instead.)

Avoid broad-spectrum antibiotics, if possible, when an illness requires an antibiotic. (Broad spectrum means they kill off good bacteria along with the bad.) The broad-spectrum antibiotics most associated with C. difficile infection are clindamycin (Cleocin), and the fluoroquinolones (Cipro, Floxin, and Levaquin).

Consider upping your intake of "friendly" bacteria, such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. They can be found in many brands of live-culture yogurt. Such a step can't hurt; research continues on whether it can help deny bad bugs a foothold in your system.

Treat It
Contact your doctor if you have diarrhea or cramping and gas that lasts longer than a few days, and avoid antidiarrheal remedies, which can prevent your body from expelling C. difficile's tissue-damaging toxins. Instead, drink lots of fluids to stay hydrated and try the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast.

More Than a Cold
On Christmas night, 2005, 14-month-old Bryce Smith had a stuffy nose and slight fever—his first cold, say his parents, Katie and Scott Smith of Santee, CA. Around midnight on New Year's Eve, Bryce began to struggle frighteningly for breath. The Smiths rushed him to the hospital, where a nurse checked his oxygen level. Within seconds, Katie recalls, at least 10 doctors and nurses had crowded around her baby, looking very scared.

X-rays and CT scans showed that Bryce's lungs were riddled with holes, and a team of surgeons hurried him into the operating room. Doctors told the Smiths that Bryce had the worst kind of lung infection, one caused by a particularly virulent variety of staph bacteria. Dubbed CA-MRSA, for community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria is resistant to penicillin, amoxicillin, and the other "cillins." And it produces poisons—which were chewing up Bryce's lungs.

Bryce lay in a medically induced coma for a month as doctors infused his body with a cocktail of antibiotics, sedatives, and other drugs. The medicines worked: After 40 days, the doctors brought him out of sedation and removed his tubes. But his parents have to be supervigilant now, because the treatment weakened his immune system, at least temporarily. "What would be an ordinary cold for us could prove deadly for him," his dad says.

Staph causes problems only when it slips past the body's defenses, through a cut or scratch or into lungs weakened by a viral infection. Close contact—on playing fields, in locker rooms and showers, and between children in day care and preschool—has been the key to many outbreaks. (Young children appear to be particularly at risk.)

MRSA made headlines in 2005 when Miami Dolphins Junior Seau and Charles Rodgers were hospitalized with limb-threatening skin infections and college football player Ricky Lannetti of Philadelphia died suddenly of MRSA pneumonia on the heels of the flu. And a few months ago, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine startled physicians by revealing that the bug now causes more than half of all skin infections treated in US emergency rooms. It's crucial, say researchers, for doctors to keep the possibility of MRSA in mind—in the recent study, most cases of MRSA were treated with drugs that don't work against the superbug.

Prevent It
Wash cuts and scrapes thoroughly with soap and water.

Don't share personal items such as towels and razors, and just in case you have a scratch that would offer entry to MRSA, always keep your clothing or a towel between your skin and any shared surfaces such as workout equipment or locker-room benches.

Get vaccinated against the flu—the disease clearly raises the risk of the most severe kind of staph infections.

Treat It
Don't ignore an infected wound or a pus-filled boil—not even a scratch, if it seems to worsen over the course of a few days. MRSA skin infections tend to be very red, swollen, and painful, sometimes with a raised bump resembling a spider bite. Getting the right antibiotic is critical, so ask your doctor to consider the possibility of MRSA.

Be particularly vigilant about any chest cold or flu that takes a sudden turn for the worse, or a fever that spikes over 102?F. "Every major medical center is now on the alert for MRSA," says John Bradley, MD, chief of infectious disease at Rady Children's Hospital—San Diego, where Bryce was treated. "But there's still a problem with general practitioners and small community hospitals, where doctors may never have seen a case."

Food's Dangerous Hitchhikers
Frightening news stories recently about the damage done by tainted spinach made it horrifyingly clear: Produce, like meat, can harbor lethal germs. The culprit in spinach, E. coli 0157:H7, is not antibiotic resistant (in fact, antibiotics are not used to treat this infection), but is indisputably extratoxic; the poisons it produces can cause fatal kidney failure. Strains of other foodborne bugs, Salmonella and Campylobacter, turn out vicious toxins, as well—and these bugs shrug off many drugs that once could vanquish them. All told, these pathogens sicken 3 to 4 million Americans each year and kill several hundred.

Prevent It
Be scrupulous about washing hands after touching raw meat or eggs, and cook these foods thoroughly. (More than half of all cuts of raw supermarket chicken carry Salmonella and Campylobacter, studies show.)

Use hot, soapy water to wash cutting boards and other kitchen surfaces that come in contact with raw meat or eggs.

Rinse produce—even veggies and fruits with a thick rind, such as cantaloupe—with a strong spray of water. If produce is contaminated by irrigation water, as was the case with spinach, only thorough cooking will destroy the germs.

Wash your (and your kids') hands after handling pet rodents and reptiles or farm animals, which can spread Salmonella and Campylobacter.

Throw your kitchen sponges into the dishwasher daily and dishrags into the washing machine often; use hot water.

Treat It
See a doctor for severe gastrointestinal distress that lasts more than a couple of days, especially if accompanied by fever. If your doctor prescribes an antibiotic, call back if symptoms worsen or don't get better within 24 hours.

Bladder Infections That Won't Quit
The first time Dena Kelley got a urinary tract infection, she ended up in the emergency room. It was the winter of 1999, and Kelley, now a 33-year-old store manager in Anchorage, was seeing what looked like tissue in the toilet bowl—the lining of her infected bladder. "It was unbelievably painful," she says, "and it scared the heck out of me."

The ER doc gave Kelley a powerful antibiotic—Cipro—to stop the infection fast, but 6 weeks later, Kelley got another UTI. Over the next year, she averaged an infection every 2 months. Finally, her doctors reluctantly turned to a drug to which she'd been allergic in childhood—amoxicillin, at four times the usual dose. Fortunately, Kelley had outgrown her sensitivity to the drug, which ended the agonizing bouts of UTIs. But she can no longer make it through the night without a trip to the bathroom. And her doctors have told her that permanent bladder damage may predispose her to chronic infections throughout her life.

Roughly half of all women get at least one UTI at some point in their lives. Until the late 1990s, doctors were able to treat the problem with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), a narrowly targeted antibiotic with minimal side effects. But many UTIs have become resistant to Bactrim and other drugs. So doctors must use stronger antibiotics that can cause problems of their own.

"It's frustrating," says Gazala Siddiqui, MD, a urogynecologist at the University of Texas Medical School at Austin. "These powerful antibiotics increase the chances of a yeast infection, and also the chances that a woman's next bacterial infection—whether it's another UTI or pneumonia—will be drug resistant."

If a resistant UTI lingers, it can cause scarring—which predisposes a woman to even more UTIs. Some doctors try to stop the vicious cycle by keeping women on antibiotics for months at a time. But that virtually guarantees that any break-through infections will be impervious to antibiotics, says Siddiqui, who's sometimes had to admit patients to the hospital for intravenous treatment.

Prevent It
Begin with good vaginal hygiene: Wipe from front to back after using the toilet and pee before and after sexual intercourse. Don't douche, and consider alternatives to spermicides; both can irritate the delicate tissue around the urethra, raising the odds of infection.

Discourage UTI-causing bacteria by making the urinary tract and vagina more acidic. "Cranberry juice is good at this. Cranberry capsules are better," says Siddiqui, who recommends two or three glasses or capsules a day for women who are prone to recurrent infection. Also helpful: acidifying vaginal jelly available by prescription (Acigel) or over the counter (RepHresh).

Try a low-estrogen vaginal cream if you're peri- or postmenopausal and getting lots of UTIs. It will keep the tissue of the urethra from thinning and becoming more vulnerable to infection.

Treat It
If you suspect a UTI, ask your doc to send a urine sample for analysis. Start antibiotics, but call back for results. If it turns out not to be a bacterial infection, stop the drugs and work with your doc to find the true cause. If a bacteria is at fault, check to make sure the drug you're on is effective against the bug you have.

3 Stay-Healthy Moves To Make Right Now
1. Wash often Scrubbing with old-fashioned soap and hot water is the best way to keep germs at bay. Do it before eating, after using the toilet or handling animals, and before and after preparing food. Wash vigorously for 20 seconds, experts say—about the time it takes to sing "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

2. Pack the right gel If a sink isn't handy, clean up with an alcohol hand sanitizer. Studies show that when someone is sick in a household, classroom, or workplace, using a gel (between hand washings) reduces the spread of disease-causing bacteria and viruses. Be sure to choose a product containing 60 to 95% alcohol—some contain less and can actually help spread germs. Use a generous gob—enough so that hands still feel damp after rubbing them together for 20 seconds.

3. Skip antibacterial soap Household soaps and other products with antibacterial chemicals, such as triclosan and triclocarban, don't prevent infection any better than products without them, studies show. Worse, some experts worry that they may promote drug resistance. There's no proof yet that they do, admits resistance crusader Stuart B. Levy, MD, of Tufts University. "But why take the risk when they haven't been shown to be any more effective?

A Healthy Hospital Stay
"Ironically, "A hospital is not a good place to be when you're sick," says Curtis Donskey, MD, chief of infection control at the Cleveland VA Medical Center. Filled with the sickest patients on the strongest antibiotics, they're breeding grounds for superbugs. Unfortunately, many doctors neglect the steps that can reduce patients' risk of picking up nasty germs during their stay, says Donskey, who has spent a decade raising awareness among his colleagues. Enlist a friend or family member to help ensure that doctors and other medical personnel follow these guidelines.

Ask your doctor to remove invasive devices such as catheters and IV lines as soon as it's safe—they provide a pathway into your body for dangerous bacteria.

Request the most highly targeted antibiotic if you require one. Remind your doctor to take you off the drug as soon as possible.

Demand to know more about infection rates. Few states now require hospitals to release this information, so it's next to impossible to "shop around" to avoid particularly risky facilities. That may be changing: New York recently passed a law requiring hospitals to make public their rates of hospital-acquired infection, and a number of other states are considering similar legislation.

[Doc.Sust]

summary please??to many words!