Flue jabs

[Jonzjob]

The one and only flu jab I had worked a real 100% treat. It put me in bed or 2 weeks with the best flu I have ever had!

Never again! Now, if I start with a clod, then before it develops I start taking 1/2 bottle of Armagnac twice a day until it goes. I have no idea how long it lasts, but who the hell cares or notices anyway :? :?

 

[dickm]

First time I had the jab, I went down with shingles a few days later. Coincidence? No idea, but it did give me pause for thought. Gave it a miss for a year, but have had it since then. The slightly worrying thing is that our GP practice insists you stay in the waiting room for 10 minutes after the jab, which suggests there is a reasonable chance of quite serious side effects.

Been wondering about the shingles jab, as I wouldn't want to get it again, which is apparently quite possible. Trouble is, I can't understand how the jab is supposed to work if (as getting it a second time once you've had it suggests) even when primed, our immune systems can't deal with it. Anyone with more medical knowledge out there who can explain this?

 

[JakeS]

The slightly worrying thing is that our GP practice insists you stay in the waiting room for 10 minutes after the jab, which suggests there is a reasonable chance of quite serious side effects.

Nearly all medicines have a chance of serious side effects - read the leaflets you get with boxes of off-the-shelf painkillers or hayfever medicine! My local hospital has a policy (I asked!) of asking people to sit around for ten minutes after being given any injection, just in case. Maybe it's a national thing.

I can't understand how the jab is supposed to work if (as getting it a second time once you've had it suggests) even when primed, our immune systems can't deal with it. Anyone with more medical knowledge out there who can explain this?

Not a medical professional, but as I understand it: vaccines are generally a dead or inert form of the actual virus, which allows our immune system a practice run at getting rid of it without serious risk to our health. The catch is that a lot of the noticeable symptoms of illnesses like 'flu (e.g. things like congestion or fever) are actually caused by our immune system fighting off the virus, rather than the actions of the virus itself! So depending on how much your immune system reacts, you may get the symptoms for a period after the injection anyway, because the whole point of the exercise is to give your immune system a trial run at fighting off the virus. Except unlike with real 'flu, there's no real danger to your long-term health with the dead version.

Think of it like target practice at a police a shooting gallery. The policemen still make a lot of noise (congestion) firing the guns and use up a lot of ammunition (giving you a fever and lethargy), but at the end of it they're better able to deal with armed criminals, and at no point did any of the targets shoot back and pose a threat to a police officer.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"Nearly all medicines have a chance of serious side effects"
If I look up the eight prescription drugs I take (21 pills a day on a good day, without painkillers - in hospital it was 46 ), it invariably tells me one of them shouldn't be taken with one of the others.

 

[JakeS]

If I look up the eight prescription drugs I take (21 pills a day on a good day, without painkillers - in hospital it was 46 ), it invariably tells me one of them shouldn't be taken with one of the others.

Not to mention that the possible side-effects (usually in the "one person in ten thousand" order, to be fair) of nearly all the drugs I've been prescribed have included the specific symptoms that they were supposed to deal with!

 

[Benchwayze]

Well the pharma industry would sooner have us on a course of 'management' drugs, for the rest of our natural, than find a cure for these diseases.

There' ain't no return from curing people. Keep 'em ill, but managed!
Am I a cynic? Probably, but that's how I see it. 8)

 

[Yorkshire Sam]

Had my flue jab last week, it worked I now have a right stinker! Again!

 

[bugbear]

Had my flue jab last week, it worked I now have a right stinker! Again!

Yeah, but a heavy cold ain't even close to flu. You really don't want flu. Flu can and does kill.

BugBear

 

[Harbo]

I had flue about 15yrs ago and it was bad.
And since then have had the annual flue jab - there's no way I want to have flue again!

Rod

 

[whiskywill]

The slightly worrying thing is that our GP practice insists you stay in the waiting room for 10 minutes after the jab, which suggests there is a reasonable chance of quite serious side effects.

It's not really because of the side effects of the drug administered but due to the possibility of anaphylactic shock. The body reacts to what it perceives to be a threat by the substance just injected. Similar to the effect of peanuts if you are allergic to them.