Hepatitis A?

[dmarieb]

When in the world did this vax come about? At my DD's 3rd b-day, her ped said she should have it. I just went with the flow (succumbing to authority ) and now wish I hadn't. I have no idea if this is what started things, but since then, my poor daughter has had the worst issues when moving her bowels. I am so angry but I truly don't know if this vax caused it or not. When my 5 year old when in for her check-up and the ped tried to give it to her, I nixed that whole idea flat out! Anyone know anything about Hep A?

[mamakay]

It's the least scary VPD ever. It's basically without any symptoms at all in little kids, but they give it to kids to protect adults.
In adults, it's basically viral food poisoning.

[Gitti]

Hep A, when kids get it they are immune for life. Most kids don't even know they have it. Not scary at all. No need to prevent it via vaccine.

But when you look at any infection closely you will see that it is silly to vaccinate for any one of them. Hep A is certainly the 'silliest'.

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by dmarieb

When in the world did this vax come about?

At the time the vaccine was introduced in 1995/96, the indication age was from two years of age. Last year, the FDA lowered the indication age to 12 months of age and the ACIP then promptly universally recommended the vaccine to all children, which then of course prompted an avalanche of daycare and school mandates.

Boom! Instant guaranteed market. And just in time to make sure the third Hep A vaccine, which will be licensed in the U.S. in the very near future, will have a guaranteed market.

I mean y'all didn't think another pharmaceutical company was going to go through the trouble and expense of getting a third Hep A vaccine on the market if they didn't know a long time ago that the CDC would ultimately guarantee a market for them. Ooops, did I say that! That would mean our governmental health agencies are looking out for number one - pharma - and not your child.

Universal recommendation = daycare/school mandates = $$$$$

FTR to the reader -- hepatitis A is NOT a chronic disease like hepatitis C and B. You get it, it goes away and you're immune for life. It's glorified food poisoning, which is asymptomatic in most children. In other words, you wouldn't even know if your kid had it. In fact, they say 1/3 of Americans are already immune to hepatitis A -- and that's probably a conservative estimate.

But the government wants every kid in America vaccinated for it because hepatitis A is just ravaging our country (you would think, right?) and children are "an important source of transmission," so we suddenly need to protect all the adults.

Oh yeah . . . and moms and dads . . . the CDC wants you to get the vax too
. . . even though you're probably immune already.

[dmarieb]

this is exactly why I'm ticked off! My dr just slid it in there without discussing it with me. I refuse to let my 5 yr old get this vax! I find it interesting that once my DD received this vax, she immediately started having intestinal issues. : Thanks for all of the support.

[mamakay]

Originally Posted by LI

A vaccine on the market if they didn't know a long time ago that the CDC would ultimately guarantee a market for them. Ooops, did I say that! That would mean our governmental health agencies are looking out for number one - pharma - and not your child.

Long Island...
If they don't make vaccines profitable, then no one will want to make them. And how is science ever supposed to plunge ahead into the bight and shiny future of a life free from sickness if pharmaceutical companies are discouraged from creating new products?
You want there to be a cure for cancer someday, don't you?
Don't you care about people dying from AIDS???



What's your problem with scientific progress?
Mandated vaccines today is a small price to pay for the future of humanity.

Viva la free marquet!

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by mamakay

Long Island...
If they don't make vaccines profitable, then no one will want to make them. And how is science ever supposed to plunge ahead into the bight and shiny future of a life free from sickness if pharmaceutical companies are discouraged from creating new products?
You want there to be a cure for cancer someday, don't you?
Don't you care about people dying from AIDS???



What's your problem with scientific progress?
Mandated vaccines today is a small price to pay for the future of humanity.

Viva la free marquet!

I hear ya.

They get more reckless every year. These newer vaccines like HPV, Tdap, Menactra (meningococal) and RotaTeq are being licensed and then IMMEDIATELY being universally recommended, which of course then leads to lightening fast laws being passed requiring them for school entry.

Within months of Tdap's licensure, New York (among other states) mandated the vaccine for all 6th graders.

But at least they're predictable, right?

Upcoming ACIP meeting = coincidental licensure of vaccine days before ACIP meeting = vote for universal recommendation at ACIP meeting

[knittinclothmama]

I'm glad to read this post. When I did my vax research I researched everything and decided to give my baby nothing. I had forgotten the details about the Hep A vax and the disease too and was recently talking to a friend who's dh is a fireman. She said that he told her you can get Hepatitis anywhere (I did remember that Hep A is the one that's more easily transmitted, so I assumed that's what she was referring to) and that it's really scary. I didn't remember it being "really scary" but I hadn't gotten around to looking it up again so this came just in time!!

BUT I do have a question about side affects.... My oldest dd (who was completely vax'd due to my own ignorance ) has Type 1 diabetes. When I was researching vax's I went and looked up her vax records to see if she had any vax's around the time or in the year before she was diagnosed (she was 3 1/2) and the only one she had was Hep A 10 months before diagnosis. I know there is no way of knowing for sure of course and from what I've read Hep A hasn't been linked with diabetes but because it falls in that time frame. It makes me wonder......

[DavinaT]

Just my experience

Had HepA when Inwas a kid, spent two weeks in hospital - quarantined, in semi-darkness as the light hurt my eyes so much, throwing up, could not eat anything containing any salt ar dairy, lost masive amounts of fluids, ended up on a drip and goodness knows what else, a further two weeks at home where I was pretyy much too weak to get a out of bed and had to be spoonfed and almot another month before i could return to school - almost a term lost.

Really really Nasty.

If there is a positive side to it, I have lifetime immunity and do not need the shots for travel.

[mamadelbosque]

I thought HEP A was way more scary than 'bad food poisoning' - which is why they recommend it for travel so much... I'm going to have to research this..

[majorsky]

Here's some info...

http://vaccineinfo.org/hepa/qandadis.asp

Kristin

[CCChanel]

Sounds like you get it from infected persons handling your food? But from the symptoms the sick person probably is not feeling well enough to be making dinner for you...lol.

:

Anyway... it's another cradle to grave vax eh?

Something kids can handle better than adults...but if we start vaxing kids it just shifts the disease burden to the adults? Like chicken pox?

or no... I'm corn-fused. :

[knittinclothmama]

I check the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report every so often just to get a clear picture of what's going on in the US despite all of the 'scary' news we hear. Here is the link http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/weekcvol.html
If you click on *Download pdf document of this issue* and scroll down to page 24 you will see the statistics for Hepatitis A (and B). In the US there have been 656 documented cases of Hep A in 2007 and last year there were 1085. We live in a country of 300 million people. Something to think about... Am I reading this right?
BTW the chart for all of the diseases starts on page 21 if you're interested in other diseases, like polio for example.

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by knittinclothmama

In the US there have been 656 documented cases of Hep A in 2007 and last year there were 1085.

And most children who get hepatitis A (and some other VPDs) are asymptomatic, so this reported figure number most likely represents adult cases of hepatitis A - and not all of them either because you're going to have adults who don't seek treatment.

Regardless, hepatitis A is just not a menace to society.