Please explain this to me re: Fluzone vax & mercury/preservatives

[danalyn]

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/biologi.../ucm195479.pdf

Above is a link to the mfr insert for Fluzone. Yesterday I visited an OB clinic, registered as a New patient (I'm 10 weeks pg). My intentions were to visit with the doc. I was giving the nurse my info, regarding my previous babies, ect. Approx. 4 times she mentioned me getting the flu vaccine. Every time she would tell me "It's preservative free". I had been at another clinic 4 weeks ago, the doc told me that my kids and I could all recieve the flu vax, and again, this doc said "it's preservative free". At this earlier visit, I asked the doc for the insert, she gave it to me, I took it home and read it. It was fluzone (link above). so, at yesterdays visit (dif. clinic), I ended up telling the nurse that I would like the insert. She gave it to me and it was Fluzone. I found the info under #8 (preg/nursing women), as well as the ingredients list. I saw the box and in big black letters it says "Fluzone, Preservative Free". So, AM I MISSING SOMETHING? WHAT AM I GETTING WRONG? I'M HOPING THAT SOMEONE HERE WILL BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN THIS TO ME. I just want to fully understand the ingredients of what is being offered. In the components table it says in the single dose presentation under preservatives there is NONE, in the multi dose presentation there is 25MCG. i hate to sound stupid, but what does this mean? why would the nurse and doctor both tell me preservative free? thanks!

[ma2two]

If the doctor's office carries the multi-dose vials of Fluzone (10 doses per vial), each dose contains 25 micrograms mercury--that is a LOT.

If the doctor's office carries the single dose vials of Fluzone, there is no mercury in those.

So you read the package insert--did you see the part where it says they don't know whether the vaccine will harm the fetus or not?

[danalyn]

okay, i don't know if they carry the multi dose or single dose. I must say that I don't understand the difference, why/how a multi dose has merc, but a single dose does not. Yeah, I definitely have read the part about "not knowing whether fluzone can cause fetal harm". I cannot believe that any OB would push it on his/her patients. It also says the same thing about nursing women.

eta: how can one have mercury and one NOT. Isn't it the same "stuff"....? I just do not understand that...

[Multimomma]

Originally Posted by danalyn

okay, i don't know if they carry the multi dose or single dose. I must say that I don't understand the difference, why/how a multi dose has merc, but a single dose does not. Yeah, I definitely have read the part about "not knowing whether fluzone can cause fetal harm". I cannot believe that any OB would push it on his/her patients. It also says the same thing about nursing women.

eta: how can one have mercury and one NOT. Isn't it the same "stuff"....? I just do not understand that...

Multidose has preservatives because they insert multiple needles into the liquid, and want to ensure that there isn't cross contamination, something they don't need to worry about if they're only inserting once.

ETA: it's the same base, but preservatives are added in the vial to keep it from becoming contaminated, so they aren't the same.

[ma2two]

The vaccine for single dose and multi-dose vials is made in the same batch, but then for the multi-dose vials, they add mercury to the vial as a preservative. Each time a syringe needle is inserted into the multi-dose vial, it can introduce bacterial contamination. If there were not a preservative, bacteria would grow in the vial, and potentially become extremely dangerous.

I guess thimerosal is cheaper than the glass vials, because putting 10 doses into a big vial and adding thimerosal is a little cheaper than putting 10 doses into 10 single dose vials without thimerosal. The price difference is less than 1 dollar per dose, I think, but that adds up when large quantities are purchased.

[danalyn]

Oh wow, thank you so much... I'm not always this clueless about *everything*, I promise. Multi Dose means that more than one patient will recieve the vax from the same vial. I get it. I'm still blown away by the fact that docs actually recommend this to their pregnant moms. I asked the doc whom I saw yesterday about that statementm, & his reply was something to the effect of: "there are so many drugs and medicines that have that very same warning on it." And yes that's true, but almost always ~if not EVERY single time~ pregnant moms and their docs will heed such a warning. Duh.