Immunizations(?) / Flu Shot(?)

[Guest medwant2b]

I know there are a bunch of immunizations you have to get (or alternatively show that you're immune).

 

Do people usually get more than the minimum?

 

Hepatitis A any one?

The risk doesn't seem to be that big (www.niddk.nih.gov/health/...hepa-e.htm )... but there is a vaccine. Is it worth it?

 

 

Has any sort of consensus developed with regard to flu shots? (I remember there was a fight in Ontario about paramedics having to get them.)

 

Are there medical schools that encourage their students to get it?

 

Is the flu shot worthwhile to get for the sake of your patients?

Not sure if this is true... but I remember hearing somewhere that if you don't have the flu shot and are healthy you may feel fine but be contagious with the flu (and give it to someone not so healthy-- a bad thing) whilst your body fights it off.

 

I hope that isn't too many questions all at once.

An incoming med student.

 

Final thought:

"Did you get your flu shot?" might be an interesting poll...

[Guest Ian Wong]

Hep A is a self-limited disease, so if you get it, your body usually clears it out within a few weeks. It doesn't set in like Hep B or Hep C, which are chronic infections that can slowly eat your liver or give you hepatic carcinoma. It wasn't required at UBC, and I don't think most of us got it.

 

Given that it's usually transmitted fecal-orally, and most people aren't carrying it in their bloodstream, the chances of you getting Hep A from a needlestick injury is pretty low. It's Hep B, Hep C, and HIV that are the real biggies.

 

As far as flu shots go, UBC medicine highly recommends it, and at each hospital you will be offered a free flu shot. It is not mandatory. I believe most other centers are like this as well; I got last year's flu shot at Sick Kids in Toronto while I was there on electives. We got pounded on the safety of vaccinations what with all the "autism" stuff, and my personal belief, which isn't worth all that much, is that most of those negative studies were based on extremely @#%$ science, small patient numbers, etc. Vaccination is one of huge successes of modern medicine, and there's a lot of evidence to suggest that your gain from getting a vaccination is miles ahead of the potential side effects, and very little (and low quality) evidence to the contrary.

 

I think the argument that you might "contract" the virus and then pass it on to an elderly patient (they are at higher risk for influenza infection complications) to be, well, not so strong. After all, it is these patients that we are trying to immunize because they are most at risk! Also, the influenza vaccine uses a killed virus, so there shouldn't be any active virus remaining (and if there was, it will likely be attenuated or of a small enough number that your body can effectively deal with it and develop immunity).

 

Still, vaccination is a personal choice, and you've got to weigh the evidence and decide for yourself.

 

Ian