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real reasons against tetanus vaccine  

post #1 of 21
6/6/06 at 4:14pm
Thread Starter 
I can't be the only one. I'm researching and researching on and on. My husband (a vet student, was a microbiology major) is even doing a lot of research reading very technical information about the exact numbers of antigens in each individual vaccine, etc.

After all the reading I've done, I'm very confident that dd won't get any more vaccines (she got her 2 month shots because I wasn't well informed and thought they were safe ).

I'm still not sure about tetanus, though. On one hand, the incidence is low and the vaccine is only really with Diphtheria and has all the nasty chamicals in it. On the other hand, the vaccine seems to have a lower incidence of bad side effects and I've read some stories about healthy kids catching tetanus from a little splinter. Or another story about a woman who really cleaned her wound well (soaked in epsom salt and cleaned well with hydrogen peroxide) and still got tetanus.

This issue is driving me nuts because I'd feel great knowing that DD would never get another shot, but the idea that she could potentially get tetanus from a little splinter even when healthy and using proper wound management scares me.

So give me some good info on why she should NOT get the tetanus vaccine

Thanks!
post #2 of 21
6/6/06 at 4:36pm
I don't know what to tell you except I understand your feelings. If there was one vaccine I'd get my son, it would be for Tetanus because it's everywhere and it's nasty! I've put it off for him so far, but it's definitely on my mind.

I hadn't heard those stories. Sure makes you think....
post #3 of 21
6/6/06 at 4:44pm
Where are you hearing that it has a low incidence of side effects?

The most recent vaccine I personally received was a tetanus "booster" when DS was about a year old. It was probably the TD, since I don't think they sell the Tetanus vax by itself. My arm was sore for a week afterwards, and I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia a few months later.

Did the vaccine affect my long term health? I'll never know for certain, but I DO know that I'm not getting any more vaccines for myself!!
post #4 of 21
6/6/06 at 4:48pm
hth...

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=318926
post #5 of 21
6/6/06 at 5:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruthla
Where are you hearing that it has a low incidence of side effects?

The most recent vaccine I personally received was a tetanus "booster" when DS was about a year old. It was probably the TD, since I don't think they sell the Tetanus vax by itself. My arm was sore for a week afterwards, and I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia a few months later.

Did the vaccine affect my long term health? I'll never know for certain, but I DO know that I'm not getting any more vaccines for myself!!
ouch! That's terrible! I guess I just meant that it is one of the safer vaccines (which doesn't say much...)
post #6 of 21
6/6/06 at 5:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by haleyelianasmom
So give me some good info on why she should NOT get the tetanus vaccine

Thanks!
1. It is not natural to have Tetanus antitoxin flowing through your blood system.
2. No studies of the risks have been done.

What effect does it have on the growing brain organ, CNS, liver, kidneys, etc?
post #7 of 21
6/6/06 at 5:31pm
Please read this entire thread, it has several posts on tetanus within this thread which will make you more confident about not vaxing for it:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=438211
post #8 of 21
6/6/06 at 5:36pm
. . . .
post #9 of 21
6/6/06 at 6:46pm
As someone who is allergic/reactive to tetanus, I seriously question the stats saying it's not reactive.

Tetanus is not a disease of the young or healthy.

-Angela
post #10 of 21
6/6/06 at 7:16pm
I have also heard that the tetanus vaccine has been essentially "watered down" to the point that it's completely useless in preventing tetanus and that this is because the vaccine caused so many reactions that they just kept diluting it until the reactions lessened which ended up rendering it useless. I'm not sure how true this is, but true or not I'm not vaccinating my son against anything and it just adds another possible reason not to.
post #11 of 21
6/6/06 at 8:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruthla
The most recent vaccine I personally received was a tetanus "booster" when DS was about a year old. It was probably the TD, since I don't think they sell the Tetanus vax by itself. My arm was sore for a week afterwards, and I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia a few months later.
Same here! The last vax I received was a tetanus booster in early high school after a nail went completely through my foot. My arm was not only sore and stiff, but the pain was so bad that I actually had to put it in a sling for some time. It was miserable! I wasn't even worried about my foot, my arm hurt so bad!

And my DW (schmaela) was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia too. So was her mother, who lived in Mexico for some time so didn't get vaxed until right before pregnant w/my DW. After that pregnancy, she was diagnosed with Fibro. However, DW wasn't diagnosed with Fibro until after all of HER OWN vaccinations.

Nate
post #12 of 21
6/7/06 at 1:19am
What makes me angry in the tetanus story is that people are led to believe that by taking the vax they can forget worrying about the disease, when in fact there is no guarantee at all that you are at all "protected". Even if you checked the antibody titer it would still be unsure.

A relevant quote:
>>>>For a while, I still held onto the notion that farm families and people who work around stables should continue to take tetanus shots. But in spite of my early indoctrination with fear of "rusty nails," in recent years, I have developed a greater fear of the hypodermic needle. My reasons are:

1) Scientific evidence shows that too—frequent tetanus boosters actually may interfere with the immune reaction.

2) There has been a gradual retreat of even the most conservative authorities from giving tetanus boosters every one year to every two years to every five years to every 10 years (as now recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics), and according to some, every 20 years. All these numbers are based on guesses rather than on hard scientific evidence.

3) There has been a growing recognition that no controlled scientific study (in which half the patients were given the vaccine and the other half were given injections of sterile water) has ever been carried out to prove the safety and effectiveness of the tetanus vaccine. Evidence for the vaccine comes from epidemiologic studies which are by nature controversial and which do not satisfy the criteria for scientific proof.

4) The tetanus vaccine over the decades has been progressively weakened in order to reduce the considerable reaction (fever and swelling) it used to cause. Accompanying this reduction in reactivity has been a concomitant reduction in antigenicity (the ability to confer protection). Therefore, there is a good chance that today’s tetanus vaccine is about as effective as tap water.

5) Until the last few years, government statistics admitted that 40 percent of the child population of the U.S. was not immunized. For all those decades, where were the tetanus cases from all those rusty nails?

6) There now exists a growing theoretical concern which links immunizations to the huge increase in recent decades of auto—immune diseases, e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus erythematosus, lymphoma, and leukemia. In one case, Guillain—Barre paralysis from swine flu vaccine, the relationship turned out to be more than just theoretical. >>>>
(From http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/tetanus.htm )

In another line of reasoning, let's think about Clostridium tetanii - the scary bacteria that "cause" tetanus. They are not even pathogens! They have no "intention" of colonizing our bodies, they do not depend on us in any way - it is simply a weird situation that they get to proliferate in some poorly oxygenated tissues. The incidence of this situation is really low even in very sick people.
What about botulism? It is caused by a very similar bacterium, Clostridium botulinum - also not a pathogen and also deadly in weird situations. Why don't we fret about it too? Simple - because there is no vax aginst it!
post #13 of 21
6/7/06 at 2:12am
What about just knowing what the signs of tetnus are and treating it if you ever get it. My ds burned his hand on a wood stove a couple of months ago (2nd degree) and the doc was a dick. He pulled out all the fear tactics, feeling like the worlds worst mama -- second guessing myself, once again, about my decision to not vax. :
post #14 of 21
6/7/06 at 9:01am
where do these stories come from? im specifically referring to the one about the person getting tetanus from a splinter.
im not considering the vax due to many reasons stated here, but really...where is this splinter case? if its true, im concerned, as would be any other person. BUT, i would like to see the specifics of the case to decide for myself what actually happened there (or to be enlightened).
im certainly not sayign the case doesnt exist, but where can i read about it??
post #15 of 21
6/7/06 at 9:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by aisraeltax
where do these stories come from? im specifically referring to the one about the person getting tetanus from a splinter.
im not considering the vax due to many reasons stated here, but really...where is this splinter case? if its true, im concerned, as would be any other person. BUT, i would like to see the specifics of the case to decide for myself what actually happened there (or to be enlightened).
im certainly not sayign the case doesnt exist, but where can i read about it??
The splinter case is on the CDC web site. I'll see whether I can find it; it's been a while since I read it. (But LongIsland has the site bookmarked, so maybe she can find it before I do, lol.)
post #16 of 21
6/7/06 at 9:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by haleyelianasmom
I can't be the only one. I'm researching and researching on and on. My husband (a vet student, was a microbiology major) is even doing a lot of research reading very technical information about the exact numbers of antigens in each individual vaccine, etc.

After all the reading I've done, I'm very confident that dd won't get any more vaccines (she got her 2 month shots because I wasn't well informed and thought they were safe ).

I'm still not sure about tetanus, though. On one hand, the incidence is low and the vaccine is only really with Diphtheria and has all the nasty chamicals in it. On the other hand, the vaccine seems to have a lower incidence of bad side effects and I've read some stories about healthy kids catching tetanus from a little splinter. Or another story about a woman who really cleaned her wound well (soaked in epsom salt and cleaned well with hydrogen peroxide) and still got tetanus.

This issue is driving me nuts because I'd feel great knowing that DD would never get another shot, but the idea that she could potentially get tetanus from a little splinter even when healthy and using proper wound management scares me.

So give me some good info on why she should NOT get the tetanus vaccine

Thanks!
Chrissy, this is the one vaccination that I struggle the most with, too, and find the most difficult to reject. I can think of a reason to delay the vaccination, as children inherit their mothers' immunity to Tetanus (assuming the mother has been vaccinated) and this immunity can last for years.

I think part of the problem is that immunity lasts much longer than the recommended booster schedule would suggest; and if people get boosters according to the schedule, they are more likely to have adverse reactions... I wonder, if parents have experienced severe reactions, whether their children might be more likely to do so, too?
post #17 of 21
6/7/06 at 9:21am
Ok, here are two splinter cases, but neither involved a child: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5128a1.htm
post #18 of 21
6/7/06 at 9:26am
Here's another, this time a child: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00000608.htm

I don't appreciate the context of this particular case, however. They seem more concerned in documenting "improper medical exemption from immunization" than in documenting exactly what happened to this child.
post #19 of 21
6/7/06 at 9:27am
Yet another tetanus from splinter case documented on CDC (again, not a child): http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00019820.htm
post #20 of 21
6/7/06 at 10:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MMGerard
Here's another, this time a child: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00000608.htm

I don't appreciate the context of this particular case, however. They seem more concerned in documenting "improper medical exemption from immunization" than in documenting exactly what happened to this child.
I also find it interesting that they spent so much time documenting the exemption, when it would appear that besides having an infected wound that needed to be expressed and cleansed properly, he was apparently healthy for 2 weeks prior to:

Quote:
Originally Posted by CDC
The child was given tetanus toxoid and intramuscular penicillin and was sent home.
Wait, so FIRST they give tetanus toxoid and antibiotics and send the boy home, before removing the splinter and expressing the pus to properly cleanse the wound? Shouldn't it have been the other way around?

Am I the only one who finds this suspicious? All the other cases listed so far involved elderly people with myriad other health problems, and this one just doesn't seem to add up the way the others do.
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