The subject that wouldn't die...
I have in the past stated that I didn't think that the chicken pox vaccination was really needed. I have to take that back. It is now known that children with chicken pox are considered high risk for Necrotizing Fasciitis. For those of you who don't know any better, that is the flesh eating bacteria. If you get it you will be lucky to last 3 days. There was an outbreak in Texas (?) that we were discussing in class today. 12 kids got Necrotizing Fasciitis, 9 of them had chicken pox. Seven of the nine died. There are only a few things that put you in the high risk categories, diabetes, chicken pox, being on NSAIDs, IV drug use, and I believe that is it. Necrotizing Fasciitis is a superbug, meaning that it is resistant to pretty much all of the antibiotics we have. SOOOOO, back to my point, VACCINATE VACCINATE VACCINATE!!!!!!!
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
posted by The Writer at 9:57 PM
9 Comments:
I have never had a Chicken Pox vaccine.Neither has Matt. I had( as did he )natural chicken pox as an infant.... but it is possible to get it a second time even then. How does that reflect in the risks?
Ethan has had the vaccine....it is newern and was developed as thinking changed from chicken pox being a rite of childhood to it being something that can become serious--shingles is a very painful disease you can only get if you have had chicken pox in the past. One of our secretaries has been out of work off and on for the past 4 months because of a recurring case of shingles. All they can do is give him pain pills and hope it goes away and doesn't come back. AND...chicken pox can be really dangerous if an adult gets it. It tends to be much stronger than the mild form most kids get/got.
AND....I have taken care of patients with nec-fasc. It can happen totally randomly, with no injury beforehand, no specific portal of entry for the bug. And is is quite resistant to a lot of abx, so they end up amputating if it is in a limb, a lot of times, or removing tons of tissue/muscle etc to get ahead of it. Hadn't heard the connection with chicken pox, but there are a ton of weird little quirks where two seemingly totally unrelated illnesses make each other work, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were tons of connections that make nec fasc more likely. THat having been said, nec fasc is NOT common, and not entirely understood. Doctors are still trying to figure out how that bug works and what best to do about it.
I don't think it matters if you have had it before or not, I think it is the chicken pox lesions that are a good entry spot (there is something about them that makes it really easy for the bacteria to get in) for N.F. Also, it is becoming much more common, as several people in my class have seen cases at St. Charles and Bend Memorial Clinic and my lecture professor knows 3 people who have had it, one who lost her arm and 2 more who lost other things. I don't think shingles puts you at risk, I think it would have to be actual chicken pox, so you would still be high risk if you got the actual pox for a second time. Of course, you would be in danger if you got chicken pox at your age anyway.
OH, and by the way, my lab prof found out that there was a recent case of polio caught in the US. He said he'd e-mail me the particulars, so apparently it is possible to get it here. Also, did you know that in the last year a guy in Warm Springs died of the plague? I didn't know that one was still running around.
Thought this was interesting:
Fetal Tissue and Vaccines. Some vaccines such as rubella and varicella are made from human cell-line cultures, and some of these cell lines originated from aborted fetal tissue, obtained from legal abortions in the
1960s. No new fetal tissue is needed to produce cell lines to make these vaccines, now or in the future.
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/gen/contamination.htm
I'd actually read that as well. Not much we can do about it now, though. May as well use the vaccines since we have them now. You may be interested to know that some bacteria (like the one that causes chlamydia, for example) have to be grown in live cell media. St. Charles does this, and I have no idea where the live cells come from. My guess is animal cells, but who knows. Plus, they use horses to get antibodies for anti-venin, as well as for hormone replacement. So, if someone takes estrogen, chances are they got it from a horse.
Interesting...
You know sometimes too much information is too much information. I was wondering why I occasionally crave corn, oats and barley all at the same time. This rings of the whole dust mite thing. TOO MUCH INFO! HAHA
Hey man, it's not like I said you had to memorize it, I just post for informational purposes. If you don't wanna read it, ya don't hafta. By the way, I know why you crave corn.......eeeeeew.
Hee hee! =P
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