Hmm.

[ewt]

I wonder if I'm affected by this - I know I had "booster shots" when we were in New Brunswick but I have no idea which ones they were. Mum?

I was exposed to mumps in 2005 (a horn-player friend was diagnosed a day after doing an exam; I spoke to him for a bit after the exam and he wasn't looking too well, I did give him a hug goodbye though) and didn't get it, but... well. I could have been lucky or he could have been not contagious at that time.

Is it bad to get a booster shot as an adult if you got a working one as a kid? Will the NHS even do this?

Given the fashion for people over here to not bother vaccinating their kids, I don't really want to rely on herd immunity if I can help it.

Comments

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

The booster shot may have been the measles. The measles shot in the '70s turned out to have problems and everyone had to get boosters--I remember mine. I don't know when exactly they stopped using the old shots but I know my sister and I (born '77 and '78) both had to have boosters, don't know if my baby sis (born '82) had them.

[karen2205]

They did a catch up MR programme over here when I was 13 or so for everyone who was too old to be given a second booster at pre-school age.

Tis worth asking your GP about it - emphasising that you're a student and thus mix with younger people who are also possibly part of the missed generation. The only Mumps booster available in the UK is MMR - immunity to the other two is a good idea too.

Also consider Men C immunisation if you haven't already. It used to be offered free to all first year students at uni, not sure if it still is or not.

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

Get your titres checked before you do anything. Many times the wild disease spreading around is enough to keep our immunity up, and we're immune to things long after our boosters should have expired. I should not be immune to rubella anymore, yet I didn't catch it when my daughter had it. The MMR is one that sheds because the viruses are live, so it's always highly in circulation.

Are any of your health problems autoimmune? I'd be worried about throwing a vaccine in on top of that especially.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

To my knowledge none of my problems are auto-immune except maybe the eczema (and it is extremely mild, more likely to be oversensitivity than actual auto-immune stuff).

[phelyan.livejournal.com]

What is it with all those shots?

I had measles, whooping cough, chickenpox, mumps, and fifth disease as a child, which is how it was done in Germany back then. Let the kids have them, that's why they're called childhood diseases, and they'll build up a natural defense against them...

[403.livejournal.com]

Because they're much more dangerous diseases in the adults who happened not to catch them as children.

For example, I brought home chicken pox when I was 6 or so. My father caught it, and ended up spending a good long time in the hospital. I found out (years) later that he'd almost died.

[shuripentu.livejournal.com]

IIRC, some of these childhood diseases also lead to nasty complications in a significant enough percentage of victims that the cost and risks of vaccination are preferable to the costs and risks of infection.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I'm particularly glad I didn't get polio, meningitis, or tetanus, and that part of the reason for this is that my age-group also weren't getting them.

I had chicken pox at 14 and it was rather horrid; for adults it can be downright dangerous.

[shuripentu.livejournal.com]

I got Men C and MMR whilst at university as part of a campaign to vaccinate everyone on campus; I'm sure that you could convince your GP to give you the same if you explain that you're doubtful as to whether your childhood vaccine is still working.