Does anyone know if it is ok for us to take vaccinations in order to travel to certain places , like Africa?
I have been advised not to take any vaccines for flu or any other live or dead virus.Check with your Rehab Doc. Good luck JOHN
This is a very subjective question. As my personal doctor says, "Every vaccination is a roll of the dice." I had numerous vaccinations in my life before the one that got the GBS reaction. It may very well be that I could get numerous more without incident. But for me, it's not worth the risk, and my world-traveler days are over.
Yes, I went to Ecuador and planned to go to South Africa. My doctor thought it would be fine. Definitely no flu vaccine. Your doctor may have other ideas. I and a lot of the vaccines from previous trips. Good luck!! It is possible though that a Hepatitis Vacc caused my GBS. I began symptoms within a week of the vaccine. I am lucky my case is mild.
For those of you who developed GBS from a vaccine, I hope you’ve contacted the government body that pays out for vaccine related illnesses. They are paying out right and left, hundreds of thousands of dollars per person.
I’ll never have a vaccine again, nor will my family. Not worth the risk. Paralyzed had to toe and on a ventilator, fairly decent recovery, considering.
Lisa
This post is somewhat over-simplified. On October 1, 1988, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-660) created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The VICP was established to ensure an adequate supply of vaccines, stabilize vaccine costs, and establish and maintain an accessible and efficient forum for individuals found to be injured by certain vaccines. The VICP is a no-fault alternative to the traditional tort system for resolving vaccine injury claims, that provides compensation to people found to be injured by certain vaccines. The U. S. Court of Federal Claims decides who will be paid.
Link to the VICP website: http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html
Lisa Topaz said:
For those of you who developed GBS from a vaccine, I hope you've contacted the government body that pays out for vaccine related illnesses. They are paying out right and left, hundreds of thousands of dollars per person.
I'll never have a vaccine again, nor will my family. Not worth the risk. Paralyzed had to toe and on a ventilator, fairly decent recovery, considering.
Lisa
Over-simplified? Considering the severe cognitive damage that was done to me by GBS, I have no choice but to over-simplify, and my guess it’s appreciated by some. I’m just trying to get the message out for others to look into more info, since the topic was vaccines. As for your post, I didn’t understand anything until the last sentence.
LanceB said:
This post is somewhat over-simplified. On October 1, 1988, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-660) created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The VICP was established to ensure an adequate supply of vaccines, stabilize vaccine costs, and establish and maintain an accessible and efficient forum for individuals found to be injured by certain vaccines. The VICP is a no-fault alternative to the traditional tort system for resolving vaccine injury claims, that provides compensation to people found to be injured by certain vaccines. The U. S. Court of Federal Claims decides who will be paid.
Link to the VICP website: http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html
Lisa Topaz said:For those of you who developed GBS from a vaccine, I hope you've contacted the government body that pays out for vaccine related illnesses. They are paying out right and left, hundreds of thousands of dollars per person.
I'll never have a vaccine again, nor will my family. Not worth the risk. Paralyzed had to toe and on a ventilator, fairly decent recovery, considering.
Lisa
Thanks for all the great feed back. Always thought it would be better without vaccines but thought this would be the best way to find out. Jennifer
Jennifer,
I have had GBS for nine years now. (well the two or three year battle and then the way in which my body was left destroyed. I have seen every specialist in Boston, Cleveland, Johns Hopkins and have even conducted my own research. I I defended my PhD dissertation just days before falling into a coma) and I am CERTAIN that you can and SHOULD take any vaccine that you can get.
First, let me pojn t out that your chances of getting ill from a vaccine AGAIN are three times what your chances were in getting the illness in the first place. But more so, without a vaccine, a simple flu could ill you, to say nothing o parasitic, viral and foreign microbews. Get all vaccines.
Doctors don;t know anything. They are human- just as you and I are. Think about your own job- how completently you do/did it but yet think of the times you were human. Now imagine working with a disease that you;ve never seen before and spent only 40 monutes on during medical school. Of the 39 doctors I have seen only one has p[reviously had a GBS patient.
So I went to the research. The fear of the vaccines for GBS started because of the 1980 flu vaccinations of which 18 people got GBS from the flu shot. THE CDC could find no other comparitive reason for this illness and therefore added it to the potential rislks of vaccinations. What they did NOT say was that in 1980 and 1981 there was a surgence in GBS larger than any known tyime in history and when averaged out- per capita, if you will- the same percentage of people got GBS as in 1990 or 2005, when I got it. I have been getting a flu shot every year since I was about 30. The year I was IN the hospital I did NOt have it. After my reseach and a great deal of discussion with my team of doctors I made the decision to have both the flu and the pnemonia vaccine. I've had the flu shot every year since. There is absolutely no reason to worry. You are in more severe danger of anything else than getting vaccinated. I repeat, getting sick is far worse. Everyone complains about food preservatives until he becomes swick with Botchalism.
Lastly, it is my theroy- and a theory based on int4erviewing 33 survivors, that stres and anxiety is a major contributing factor to the onset of this disease. The virus may be there and waiting- and everyone admits they know not how- but of the 33 people from A Stockholm study and a Sydney Study with whom I spojme, 31 admitted to be undergoing stress at the time of onset. Two others were joyous, one planing her daughters marraige and another excited about the first Christmas in over ten years that the whole family would be together. that leaves one, yes? (Johns Hopkins wouldn;t assist me because of HIPPA).
If you have the eneergy and the ability to travel to Africa or Asia I say do it and do as a "normal" person would.
we live once, Yes?
Dave Seaman
Hi there. I don't know about other vaccinations, but I will NEVER EVER have a FLU vaccination again. I live in South Africa so not sure what vaccinations a visitor would need to come here - maybe only malaria tablets if you are going to Kruger National Park or thereabouts.