Swine Flu Vaccine

tiamai_d

Ruby_Moon wrote: »

I just don't get why any parent wants to have their child pumped full of chemicals when their own immune system is far better dealing with swine flu anyway.

Because sweetheart, some of us will take a child pumped full of chemicals rather than risk a child lying in a hospital bed with a respirator on their face and IV lines keeping their bodies hydrated and being pumped full of antibiotics to help combat the pneumonia they have developed as a result of having a wee touch of the flu.

Not everyone is blessed with a perfect immune system.

emlou2009

people are willing to pump their children with these potentially life saving chemicals because its been proven that when someone has underlying conditions the virus is more dangerous to them i see no reason for normal, healthy people to have the vaccine, but if my son wasnt completely healthy and had athsma or whatever the other criteria are for the jab rather than just age, i would most definitely be getting him to have it for his own protection!

emlou2009

cross posted! tia, nicely put some people are so narrow minded, i do get sick of people shoving their opinions down our throats - theres a way of putting things, and a way of NOT putting things...

Ruby_Moon

tiamai_d wrote: »

Because sweetheart, some of us will take a child pumped full of chemicals rather than risk a child lying in a hospital bed with a respirator on their face and IV lines keeping their bodies hydrated and being pumped full of antibiotics to help combat the pneumonia they have developed as a result of having a wee touch of the flu.

Not everyone is blessed with a perfect immune system.

Do you have a flu jab every year then? Because there are far more poorly people with normal flu every year than there are with Swine flu.
The other part of vaccinations is that the child can still get the flu. They are a protection, not a complete one though, same as any vaccine.
Perfect immune systems don't happen by vaccination. They become perfect by being subjected to bacterias and viruses etc.

emlou2009

there are people with a naturally depleted immune system for which nothing can be done! i doubt subjecting them to bacteria and viruses would do them much good!

tiamai_d

Ruby_Moon wrote: »

Do you have a flu jab every year then? Because there are far more poorly people with normal flu every year than there are with Swine flu.
The other part of vaccinations is that the child can still get the flu. They are a protection, not a complete one though, same as any vaccine.
Perfect immune systems don't happen by vaccination. They become perfect by being subjected to bacterias and viruses etc.

No, but my SON with the lowered immune system due to the circumstances of his birth, has the flu vaccine every year after he ended up as above at not quite 2 years old.

Again, what is this normal flu? Swine flu is a normal flu, just a new strain.

rach29

Glamazon wrote: »

was just going to post exactly the same!

I'm the practice manager u may be thinking of but am on mat leave so abit out of the loop atm.

If your daughter is on a list it means the surgery have searched their computer system for people aged between a-b who one of the following conditions c,d,e,f - you still with me?
I would ask what they searched for and why your daughter has shown up - she may have had 'childhood asthma' recorded in her notes. if the surgery r searching for everyone with asthma she will show up, however they SHOULD be searching for people with asthma who have had an inhaler in the last year as this how u find an 'active' asthma patient.

The lists can be wrong - I once sent 3 letters out to people about the MMR - unfortunately I sent it to the ones tha HAD had it the vaccine not those that HADN'T all because I forgot to tick 1 box!

Sorry haven't read all the replies yet but Glam, yes it was you I was thinking of

The thing is my daughter has never had any of the supposed "risk" factors. The only problems she's had since birth are a dislocated hip and and episode of alopecia 5 years ago I'm thinking they've made a mistake, but not sure they'll discuss it with me as she's 16 now.

Either way I'm going to pop into the surgery tomorrow & see if I can make some sense of it.

I'm not usually a worrier, but my son's asthma is only really there when he gets a cold & I think any type of flu could knock him back quite severely.

Thanks to all who've replied - going back to read the rest now

money_maker_3

My son was oxygen starved at birth and for that reason may have numerous problems that we are not yet aware of, one of which is a very low immune system which would leve him highly susceptible to picking up every illness going.
His pediatrician is so concerned about this that he has given him the jab at 5 months rather than wait for the 6 month mark. I had the pros and cons explained to me as I had concerns over his age and getting more jabs.
Trust me, I would MUCH rather give my son an injection, than risk for one nano second losing him, like I almost did at his birth, as at the end of the day, if he caught it, is a very high posibility. Now tell me I made the wrong decision in giving it to him ....... I very much doubt anyone in the same situation wouldnt have done the same thing !!

rach29

RubyMoon until you've held a child in hospital who's struggling to breathe & shaking in terror because of said inability to draw breath & being hooked up to machines & having a mask held over his face I really don't feel you are in any position to comment.

Neither of my other perfectly healthy children will be having this jab & they all get exposed to germs, virusses etc on a regular basis, they are impossible to avoid.

bank_of_slate

from Department of Health site:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Flu/Swineflu/DH_107340

More than 11 million people in England will be offered it first.
NHS Hospitals will begin vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and their patients who fall into at risk categories against swine flu from today (Wednesday). The vaccination programme will be rolled out over the next few weeks with GP surgeries receiving deliveries from Monday (26 October).
Around two million frontline health and social care workers will be offered the vaccine. This group is at increased risk of infection and of transmitting that infection to susceptible patients. Protecting these people will help the NHS workforce to remain resilient and able to treat sick patients.
The following at risk groups will be prioritised in the following order (numbers given are approximate and are for England only):

1. People aged over six months and under 65 years in current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at risk groups (about 5 million people)
2. all pregnant women (about 0.5 million people)
3. household contacts of people with compromised immune systems eg people in regular close contact with patients on treatment for cancer (about 0.5 million people)
4. people aged 65 and over in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at risk groups (about 3.5 million people). This does not include otherwise healthy over 65s, since they appear to have some natural immunity to the virus.

Patients will be contacted by their GPs if they fall into one of the at risk categories.
The GSK vaccine (Pandemrix) will be offered to the vast majority of people. It has been licensed and approved by the European regulators. Most people will need only one dose of this vaccine for protection.
The Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, said:
'Our best line of defence against swine flu is the vaccine. I’m very pleased to say that the UK is one of the first countries in the world to start vaccinating against this virus.
'The independent committee of experts in the UK has recommended that all those in the at risk groups should be offered the swine flu vaccine. It is also being offered to frontline health and social care workers to protect them and their patients and ensure the NHS is staffed should it come under pressure this winter.'
Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer said:
'This is the first pandemic for which we have had vaccine to protect people. I urge everyone in the priority groups to have the vaccine – it will help prevent people in clinical risk groups from getting swine flu and the complications that may arise from it.
'It's important for frontline health and social care workers to have the vaccine. It will help prevent them and their families getting the virus from patients, it will stop them passing the virus onto their patients, it will potentially protect them from mutated strains and it will reduce the disruption to NHS services caused by people being absent due to illness.'

...Linda xx