Didn't know if this should go in Pests and Diseases ;)
I cut my finger on Thursday afternoon, not badly (although it bled like stuck pig!) but it was filthy. I'd been grubbing around in soil that had a manure mulch until a few weeks ago. We have no clean water on our site and there were no first-aiders around so all I could do was dribble what was left of a bottle of drinking water on it and put a plaster on. When I got home some hours later, I cleaned it up properly but thought that I might need a tetanus booster.
So I went along to my GP's surgery for the 8am walk-in clinic only to find they don't do walk-in clinics any more {sigh}. The receptionist wanted to know what I wanted so I said a tetanus booster. She told me I don't need one because 'you're assumed to have immunity' (because of my age I think is what she meant). So rather than argue the toss in front of a waiting room full of patients, I left.
I called NHS Direct who were very helpful and sent me off to the local hospital walk-in clinic for a booster. At the hospital, also very helpful, they gave me the immunoglobulin vaccination which gives immediate protection for the acute exposure and a booster vaccination for longer term protection.
Sothe moral is, at this time of year if you're manuring, think tetanus! If an open wound becomes contaminated with soil/manure, you need to seek medical advice.
It's a prerequisite for gardeners and lotties as far as I'm concerned.
My niece is about to embark on growing veg in her new huge garden (green with envy ;D) and it's on the list of things to natter to her about tomorrow.
Think tetanus jabs last for about 10 years now.
Ninnyscrops
The current thinking is that 5 vaccinations which most of us get in childhood/teens gives you lifelong protection. However, if you have an acute exposure, you should go and get topped up.
After childhood tetanus, adults tetanus lasts 10 years. Providing you have had all your childhood tetanus vaccinations and then 2 adult ones at 10 yearly intervals - once you reach the age of 35 you are then deemed to have life-long immunity. Though it will do no harm if you have to have administered the occassional booster.
Some weeks ago I was in the same situation. Cut finger, moving manure etc.. I came home at about 3pm. Rang my G.P. surgery. I was advised to come along as soon as I could. Washed and changed for 3:30. I was given an injection straight away. Can't speak highly enough of my G.P.s.
We both have a top up every 10 years !!
Due to being very accident prone into my early adulthood - I have had loads of tetanus injections so fingers crossed, I'm covered.
I took my youngest in recently for his Teen boosters including Tetanus, he got the nurse who is very oldfashioned 'sister style' with no people skills. She didn't like it that he wanted his Mum to come in with him...probably because she had to ask him if he knew about STD's! Anyway as he had his boosters I said i hope that tetanus doesn't swell up and get really sore like my last one.....to which the nurse snapped you've had too many if it did that it reduces the effectiveness.
You really can't be too careful if you are at one with the soil --- it contains large ammounts of bacteria
and I am sure lots of other nasties.
I think a tetanus jab is essential to those who garden in every sense. I stuck a fork prong into the top of my foot once -- young and stupid digging in bare feet ! I ask you !
Had a booster jab of tetanus and all healed up, until I was washing my my feet a while later -- [ bare
feet again ] and the scar e - - - - - - - !
Say no more -- If you havn't had one, go get it soon.
I enquired of my GP some years ago about the ten year booster, she checked my records and said that I have had all that's allowed. I had been having them ever since I worked on a farm in the 1960's.
crazy, you don't need these terrible vaccinations, it is all about fear factor and you'd be much worse if you knew what the tetanus jab was all about
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/tetanus.htm
you need to think outside the box sometimes, just be sensible
Quote from: calendula on December 02, 2008, 18:41:40
it is all about fear factor
Which is exactly what the link you posted is all about- fear factor - so it's no different. You pays your money, you makes your choice.
calendula
Can't help feeling that the fear factor in the link you posted, is more about needle phobia,
I for one would not refuse any protection offered - especialy in this day and age with people
traveling to all corners of the world where some deseases are endemic.
With the internet and all it has to offer , we are more educated about what effects us for
the good or the bad -
As ceres says ' you pays your money ...etc '
floss
nothing to do with needle phobia at all but what is actually in the vaccination and what it can do to you and of course the price you pay goes straight to the drug companies and the other hidden ;rice some pay is to their overall health and immune system - you are to unlikely to get tetanus, but yes your choice ???
I`m not being crude but in situations where there is no clean water----pee on it??
calendula,
Your referance to ' what a vaccination can do to you ' and ' the price you pay goes straight to the drug companies ' yer soo! You pays your money -- you takes your choice !
I would not criticise you for taking an alternative road -- yes , you are unlikely to get Tetanus,
but I sure as hell wouldn't like to !!
Horses for courses !
floss
As a jobbing gardener, you would think my quacks would give me a booster, and i have begged, and pleaded - thanks Ina, but still they refuse point blank, even though there are no records of me ever having had one as I have changed docs many times and my records leave a lot to be desired. I may find out about the hossy and see if they have a clinic. I got a prickle in my finger from a rose 2 weeks ago, and after 24 hours of nothing, my knuckle suddenly swelled up like a golf ball and was hot and sore....did I go to the docs - nope, because it has happened before and I know it goes down, but the time is going to come when it doesn't and I might wake up dead!! :-\
I hit my leg with a garden fork in early may, and went to my Dr's he looked up my tetanus record and advised me to get a booster, which i had, but unfortunately i didn't know what was on the allotment as we had only taken it over about a week earlier, and I developed a really nasty infection pseudonamas which i was prescribed 13 courses of antibiotics, which did not clear it up, and purely by chance i was told about Manuka Honey, which i researched on the net and decided to buy, It was a struggle getting the medical profession to use it on me, but after only about 4 weeks my wound is almost healed.. so what I'm saying is badger your GP to give you the tetanus as we cant be sure what is in the soil, and they don't always know what is best for us.
but neither of these stories have anything to do with tetanus, very muddled thinking - by having the jabs you are effectively giving yourself the chance to be open to the toxic matter - tetanus is for tetanus not anything else, you really are unlikely to get tetanus - it really is strange what people are prepared to put into their body
btw all good honey, i.e. that comes straight from the hive and is not tampered with, has natural antibiotic qualities but manuka honey is great though
Pseudomonas sp are very common particularly on plants, they can be plant pathogens...they also can cause very serious infections in humans and have been known to be fatal.
I've had a tetanus booster every 10 years but I'm guessing that next time nothing will say will get me one. I had to beg for one aged 20 when my records showed I'd only ever had one....and that was despite two separate rusty nails right thru my foot on separate occasions when I was a child.
Quote from: calendula on December 02, 2008, 18:41:40
crazy, you don't need these terrible vaccinations, it is all about fear factor and you'd be much worse if you knew what the tetanus jab was all about
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/tetanus.htm
you need to think outside the box sometimes, just be sensible
Have you ever seen the effect of tetanus? When I worked on the farm we had a foal who contracted tetanus and had to be put down, it is not a pretty site. I had to help the Vet with it. I don't want to see it again.
If those people who refuse to have the anti-tetanus injections do contract tetanus then they should have to pay for their treament, not our hard strapped NHS service.
Apparently immunisation takes 5 doses of vaccine.
[/quote]
Have you ever seen the effect of tetanus? When I worked on the farm we had a foal who contracted tetanus and had to be put down, it is not a pretty site. I had to help the Vet with it. I don't want to see it again.
If those people who refuse to have the anti-tetanus injections do contract tetanus then they should have to pay for their treament, not our hard strapped NHS service.
[/quote]
angry angry :) I actually never partake of the nhs but believe it or not animals have different immuune systems to us and believe it or not again we are born with one of the best systems in the world (our own immune systems) and compromising that you do at your own peril - at best you get an immediate toxic reaction, at worst you get a messed up immune system that leads to all sorts of problems later in life which really does bend the strapped nhs - your choice but glad it isn't mine :)
every one's immune system is different - 5 doses is a regulation put down by the drug companies, I cannot think of a reason why but $$$$$$$ comes to mind ;)
Quoteat best you get an immediate toxic reaction, at worst you get a messed up immune system that leads to all sorts of problems later in life
If that goes for everyone, then
QuoteQuoteevery one's immune system is different
is surely a contradiction
:-\
Quote from: Amazin on December 07, 2008, 15:00:27
Quoteat best you get an immediate toxic reaction, at worst you get a messed up immune system that leads to all sorts of problems later in life
If that goes for everyone, then
QuoteQuoteevery one's immune system is different
is surely a contradiction
:-\
no, not a contradiction, we all have an immune system but will vary because we are all individuals but it is a system that most? people have compromised and from a very early age as well and the more you compromise it the worse it can be :)
Are you saying the tetanus vaccine doesn't work?
I'm trying to say a few things :)
1) no-one can tell you that it does or does not work as there is absolutely no definitive test or way of knowing whether immunity occurs or not - so it asks the question, 'why have the vaccination?'
2) if anyone does allegedly have tetanus or dies from it then you would need extensive and expensive lab tests and autopsy tests to prove one way or another if they really do have it and even then there is no real proof as resistant spores can be found in domestic pets and humans and the outward expression of tetanus mimics quite a large number of other diseases - all very unreliable but the fear of it feeds even more fear and encourages people to think they need immunity
3) anyone taking the vaccination can be open to a nasty toxic reaction (you cannot always know if this is going to happen) and even if there is no obvious reaction from the vaccination the toxic matter has been placed within the body and the complications of antibodies can cause all manner of a compromise to an immune system - all vaccinations carry that threat, of toxic and unnecessary compromise to health
4) once an immune system is compromised then one is open to all manner of inherited disease coming to the fore as the body tries to deal with the toxicity that remains for a very long time - at best you might have someone who cannot fight off the slightest infection, for example
5) if you look at where tetanus is allegedly rampant, let's say the whole of Africa for example (extremely rare in Britain) then sadly politics comes into this big time - Africa being the dumping ground for all sorts of unlicensed or tested drugs so 'cooking the books' and saying tetanus is rampant there justifies the dumping of hoards of tetanus and other vaccinations, costing billions of dollars, money that could be spent on irrigation technology, food technology, shelter, clothes etc but the drug companies make obscene amounts of money in this and it is naive to imagine anything else
There is so much more but this is more than you asked :) but I am just trying to get people to think and look outside the box and if one cares about what they put into their bodies then they need to ask the questions, do the research and think outside that box without accepting what we are told to think. :)
Sorry, but that is just so much conspiracy theory mumbo-jumbo. You've managed to turn a thread about a health risk to gardeners into a debate about third world politics. I'm out of here.
Agree. It's a rant about big drugs companies, regardless of the original topic.
how strange, you've obviously not been reading - the original topic was a rant about putting toxic substances into your body and Ceres, for someone who went to great lengths to rant about toxic manure then I am surprised but overall not surprised that folk don't really care about what they do, they basically don't want to think about it - nothing to me so I'm out of here as well, people do get grumpy at this time of year ;)
I was told that a nurse who had a plot on our site a number of years ago died from tetanus due to..... a cut she acquired on the plot that got soil in it...
I'm surprised that anyone thinks there's anything sinister about tetanus jabs, been around for years, tried & tested etc... Thought it was MMR we're sposed to be paranoid about.
I'm with Ceres - I pay my money & make my choice. I'm opting for the medical professionals opinion!
I am not saying that medical research is never biased. I actually did a pharmacology project on this at University, but scaremongering based on little scientific evidence is accountable for many choosing not to have vaccinations without a true informed choice.
Quoteat best you get an immediate toxic reaction, at worst you get a messed up immune system that leads to all sorts of problems later in life
Where is the scientific evidence that backs this up? Don't believe all you read. How do you know any of this "research" is valid?
I had unsubbed from this but keep getting the posts for some reason, so
Sparkly, there is a mass of info out there that would help you make decisions about this and if you contact me off list I will send some of it to you but as you can see the few people who are reading this actually want to consume toxic material and I don't think it is worth my time posting useful information any more
Of course there is all the other potentially dangerous material that goes into the vaccination such as formaldehyde, aluminium, mercury etc and also there is a risk of infection from contamination from the human serum used but what the heck, we love this stuff, let's put it on our cereals :)
then maybe you could supply absolute scientific proof that immunity occurs after all these shots, you won't be able to, I know that for a fact already, so not only do people take this stuff but they aren't immune even then
bye
Quote from: calendula on December 07, 2008, 10:35:55
I cannot think of a reason why but $$$$$$$ comes to mind ;)
Ah! I notice that the $ is used, in the UK we do not have the vast space of some other countries and so the likelyhood of contracting tetanus is higher. I can understand the reluctance of people not fortunate enough to have an NHS like ours and where you have to pay out every time you want something.
Quote from: calendula on December 08, 2008, 13:18:50
I had unsubbed from this but keep getting the posts for some reason, so
Sparkly, there is a mass of info out there that would help you make decisions about this and if you contact me off list I will send some of it to you but as you can see the few people who are reading this actually want to consume toxic material and I don't think it is worth my time posting useful information any more
Of course there is all the other potentially dangerous material that goes into the vaccination such as formaldehyde, aluminium, mercury etc and also there is a risk of infection from contamination from the human serum used but what the heck, we love this stuff, let's put it on our cereals :)
then maybe you could supply absolute scientific proof that immunity occurs after all these shots, you won't be able to, I know that for a fact already, so not only do people take this stuff but they aren't immune even then
bye
There no such thing as scientific proof. Science cannot prove anything, only give evidence towards a hypothesis. Your statement that immunity won't occur in everyone is obviously likely to be true. No treatment is likely can work for 100% of people. Each individual's immune system shows variation. In any way, that claim would be impossible to measure. Drugs trials are actually very stringent. Yes, not 100%, what is? All that can be done is to work out statistical risk and calculate whether any risk is acceptable. The people who make these judgements are educated in their field and are also held accountable for their decisions. What I find difficult to understand is how bias are used in how science is presented to the public. It is very easy to manipulate data and use this emotionally. This does lead to scaremongering. Tabloids are unbelievable in this respect. I am all for people being able to make their own decisions, but to make these they need access to unbiased evidence and the ability to understand and analyse this evidence. I was not in any case trying to say you are wrong. We all make our judgements based on the evidence we are supplied with.
I, for one, do not like putting unnecessary drugs into my system. I have got by so far in my 61 years. However, I am thinking about people with suppressed immune systems who couldn't cope with taking tetanus on top of their illnesses. Surely they would be wise to have jabs if they are unfortunate to cut themselves.
I start from the premise that all journalists are liars, some worse than others.
Quoteas you can see the few people who are reading this actually want to consume toxic material
Quotewhat the heck, we love this stuff, let's put it on our cereals
You didn't bother to check that at no point have I expressed a preference for or against having the vaccine myself. That's ranting.
What next - a ducking stool?