ray@cs.rochester.edu (Ray Frank) (09/27/90)
In article <39212@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Richard.DeWald@f70.n382.z1.fidonet.org (Richard DeWald) writes: >We do have a vaccine for Hepatitis B, this may account for some of the lesser >attention it gets. It is expensive, sometimes painful, and time consuming to >get vaccinated for Hepatitis B, though. I must clear up this misconception, at least from my own experience. I wouldn't want someone to think they shouldn't get the vaccine for the reasons stated above. I got the vaccine and it was neither painful nor time consuming. It required three visits to the doctor spaced three months and six months apart. This is hardly a time consuming activity. Once there, it was a simple painless injection into the muscle of my arm. The only discomfort was a slight muscle ache that lasted several hours. But this is a small price to pay for being protected against Hepatitis B. I had a bout of non A-non B several years ago and a bout of Hepatitis B might have finished me according to my doctor. ray
mwfolsom%hydra.unm.edu@ariel.unm.edu (Mike Folsom) (09/30/90)
In article <39398@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> ray@cs.rochester.edu (Ray Frank) writes: >In article <39212@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Richard.DeWald@f70.n382.z1.fidonet.org (Richard DeWald) writes: > >>We do have a vaccine for Hepatitis B, this may account for some of the lesser >>attention it gets. It is expensive, sometimes painful, and time consuming to >>get vaccinated for Hepatitis B, though. > >I must clear up this misconception, at least from my own experience. I wouldn't >want someone to think they shouldn't get the vaccine for the reasons stated >above. >I got the vaccine and it was neither painful nor time consuming. It required >three visits to the doctor spaced three months and six months apart. This >is hardly a time consuming activity. Once there, it was a simple painless >injection into the muscle of my arm. The only discomfort was a slight muscle >ache that lasted several hours. But this is a small price to pay for being >protected against Hepatitis B. I had a bout of non A-non B several years >ago and a bout of Hepatitis B might have finished me according to my doctor. > >ray I really wanted to agree with Ray about this. I took the vaccine about 5 years ago in Canada (for free - blessed be the name of socialized medicine) and besides a bit of soreness in the area of injection I suffered no illness because of the shot. One question though - is a booster needed? I remember reading the literature on the vaccine and it said that at that time they were not sure about the necessity of getting a booster. Hepatitis B is a nasty disease. I remember getting annoyed with friends about their refusal to spend a couple of hours to be vaccinated. Even if they had to pay for it - it was still a deal. Michael WARNING - .signature is a bit depresso! ******************************************************************************* Michael W. Folsom Dept. of Biology Univ. of New Mexico (mwfolsom@unmvm) 505-766-9327 res Albuquerque, NM 87131 ( " @unmvm.unm.edu) 505-277-3505 lab "We take stock of reality, which is like measuring the length of the chain which binds our feet. Then we say: "Is this life? Nothing more than this? A closed cycle which is repeated, always identical?" This is a dangerous hour for every man." from _Meditations on Quixote_ by J. O. Y Gasset. ******************************************************************************* -- ******************************************************************************* Michael W. Folsom Dept. of Biology Univ. of New Mexico (mwfolsom@unmvm) 505-766-9327 res
Richard.DeWald@f70.n382.z1.fidonet.org (Richard DeWald) (10/02/90)
My feed with this conference was broken for a while, so I missed this
discussion, but it seems that comments I made about the Hepatitis B vaccine
have caused some concern. It is true, I should not have (and did not mean to)
given the impression that the vaccine is too painful or expensive to be worth
getting. I have gotten it myself and it was no more painful than any other
vaccine. I got it for free from the Hospital with which I work.
I have been amazed at how many people that work in the Hospitals that I work
at have not gotten the vaccine. It has been my experience that people are
unduly afraid of the pain of an injection, images of sadistic doctors and
nurses with needles in their hands do crop up in the popular culture here and
there. People do believe such things, as silly as they are. Disapproving of
their rationale does not make this reality go away.
Even those of us who have been vaccinated still work up a patient for Hep B
when we get stuck. Even though we are supposed to have some degree of
immunity, we worry. Among the doctors and nurses that I have a personal
rapport with, we talk much more about Hepatitis B exposure risks than HIV
exposure risks. We are scientists as well as humanitarians, we respect the
numbers.
By all means, get the vaccine. It is much less trouble and expense than
coming down with Hepatitis B is. I hate to belabor the obvious, but I did not
anyone to believe that the minimal pain and inconvenience were adequate
justification for going unvaccinated. If it were much more painful and much
more expensive you still should do it.
Richard DeWald, BSN Student
Univ. of TX - Austin.
--
Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!382!70!Richard.DeWald
Internet: Richard.DeWald@f70.n382.z1.fidonet.org