Guest guest Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 Has anyone heard anything adverse about the TB shot? If you have, please let me know. This is very important. Namaste, Bethany Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 On 5/5/07, Bethany <bjezik wrote: Has anyone heard anything adverse about the TB shot? If you have, please let me know. This is very important. Namaste, Bethany NamasteIf you are talking about BCG, I have some inputs to give you.One of my ex-colleague's son (barely two months old) got infected by TB days after getting the BCG vaccination. I can provide you my ex-colleagues email address if you wish (but he still does not believe in Naturopathy) I also know (from my connections) that most of the allopaths do not give BCG vaccination to there own kin.And then there is this report from Indian Express that you must go thru. I am also pasting the text. http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19991028/ige28025.html After 50 years, ICMR finds BCG vaccine is just a scar on your arm PALLAVA BAGLA NEW DELHI, OCT 27: The only available vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) does not work! An extensive 15-year trial carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has come up with startling revelations for the Indian public health programme on TB. The ICMR has found that the BCG vaccine ``offered no overall protection in adults and a low level of overall protection in children.''In other words, for the last 50 years, the public health service in India has been injecting crores of infants with painful doses of a seemingly worthless TB vaccine called BCG as part of its `Expanded Programme of Immunisation.' By its own admission now, ICMR has found that BCG neither protects adults nor does it immunise children.Doubts have always been there over the efficacy of the BCG vaccine but this is the first definitive study. The Tuberculosis Research Centre in Chennai followed up over two lakh people vaccinated with BCG for 15 years in the Chingleput district. They concluded, ``BCG offers no protectionagainst adult type of tuberculosis and consequently, it cannot be expected to reduce the transmission due to tuberculosis.''Former ICMR director general V Ramalingaswami calls it the ``Great Madras failure'', since the BCG vaccination was initiated with great expectations in Tamil Nadu five decades ago.Incidentally, the United States stopped using BCG as a vaccine many years ago; this happened when the first doubts were raised. US public health experts found that no useful purpose was being achieved by giving its population a false sense of security and decided that the money spent on vaccinations was better spent on providing suitable drugs to TB patients.In light of the latest finding, the significant question is: Should BCG now even find place in the national immunisation programme? Says Ramalingaswami: ``We now need to seriously think on whether to continue BCG as part of the national programme.'' He says the time has come to ``reopen the discussion on whether it is wise or not to give BCG atall.''Medical experts say fortunately, the BCG vaccine does no harm to the human body but since it is an injectable vaccine, it could very well play a role in the spread of serious needle-borne infections like Hepatitis B and even HIV.The new finding is being seen as a wake-up call to the Ministry of Health, given there is no alternative vaccine for TB yet and the disease is already assuming unmanageable proportions. The World Health Organisation described it as the `biggest killer' among adults in South-East Asia.Though TB is curable with the judicious use of antibiotics, about two billion people are estimated to be carriers of the disease. The WHO estimates that every year, about eight million new cases are added to the global burden of which 2-3 million succumb to TB.According to recent WHO estimates, India carries 25 per cent of the global burden of TB with 50-60 per cent of the population being carriers of the TB bug. In 1995 alone, India reported 1.2 million cases of TB. To add to themisery, the combination of AIDS and TB is lethal and India is now the capital of both diseases.Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 I had one in 1968 or 1978 and am still alive with no apparent untoward effects - though I was adult at the time - and Xray in 2004 post car accident showed "spots on the lung" to be followed up by GP please - GPs comment was "anyone who grew up in UK has TB don't worry about it." Not sure if all that helps or not! Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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