Tetanus immunity... - Page 4

[Science Mom]

Originally Posted by mamakay

I noticed that, too...


Wasn't it just one monkey that happened to?

In that report yes, but also in previous reports by different investigators.

Oh...and about this:

They still couldn't really correlate the supposed protective titre with a reduction in incidence though. A lot of them should have been protected (according to what ever they were calling the correlate of protection for a monkey...not sure if they borrowed it from humans or what there) but the incidence wasn't reduced.

But either way, the second dose does appear to have done something good.

No, the one vaccination did nothing so who knows what and how old the one dose was. They did use the human value of >0.01 IU but the WHO reference standard is >0.1 IU. Stuff like this drives me wonky.

SM

[wallacesmum]

The second dose is supposed to help in the event of exposure, if the first dose was administered prior to exposure (even if it was a long time ago), right? How does that work?

[mamakay]

Originally Posted by wallacesmum

The second dose is supposed to help in the event of exposure, if the first dose was administered prior to exposure (even if it was a long time ago), right? How does that work?

It takes a while for your body to figure out how to kill something off the first time you encounter it. It might be a week or a month before the immunological memory is there. But after that first time, it all kicks in really fast. (as a general rule)

That's why the first time you encounter chickenpox (for example) you'll probably get spots and shed little CP virons all over the place for a week, but for forever after (as a general rule) when you run into the virus, you get an immune system response, but the virus dosn't make it far enough to shed from you or cause pox.

[mamakay]

SM...what's your theory on the anomalies, like the chick who was hyperimmunized to make TIG, and still got tetanus?
I know no one really knows, but what's your personal theory (if you have one).

[Science Mom]

Severe tetanus in immunized patients with high anti-tetanus titers. Crone NE, Reder AT. Neurology. 1992 Apr;42(4):761-4. PMID: 1565228.

I presume you are referring to the above article that you cited earlier. There could be some defect of specific or innate immunity such as Ig heavy chain deletions when certain IgG subclasses will be absent and/or something about the abnormal response to tetanus toxin but seemingly normal response to tetanus toxoid as the authors suggested. I will read the full text sometime this week but I doubt there will be much light shed on those cases (and others) since they never seem to follow-up with the patients' immune function profile.

SM

[bri276]

in a recent article in Pediatrics, there was a report of a 14 yr old fully vaccinated German boy who had atypical tetanus (first misdx'ed botulism because he presented with flaccid paralysis at first, then progressed to rigor). evidently from scraping his knee on the floor. he recovered completely w/ treatment. interesting. he'd had a booster one year before.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...ll/120/5/e1355

also,

An increased incidence of tetanus in countries with immunization programs has been reported in elderly adults with impaired immunity despite preceding vaccination.