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Vaccination hell

Vaccination hell

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People who tell you vaccinations don't hurt are the same sort of people who tell you that circumcision isn't painful. They are scoundrels and blatant liars.
Not that I want to compare having your foreskin sliced off with being repeatedly jabbed like a pin cushion, but I am suffering as I type. If you wish to pity me, now is the time to do so.

Seemingly India has more diseases than Einstein had braincells and for a good many of them you need to be vaccinated. I didn't take them all...it was too expensive.
Okay. I'm the first to admit that it may sound like I'm gambling with my life, but let's be honest...how bloody dangerous can these diseases be???

Dengue fever
A mosquito disease. No known vaccination or cure. It can't kill you though, it just gives you the jitters and using aspirine increases the chances of haemorrhaging.

Hepatitis A
Yeah. I took this one. I think my liver suffers enough as it is.

Hepatitis B
I didn't take this one. Not because of the price, but because it's a venerial disease. With the state my sex-life is in, taking it would just be tempting providence. Should I get so lucky, I'll use a condom (and make sure they're not drooling or anything).

Japanese B Encephalitis
Another mosquito disease. This one either kills you are gives you brain damage. No known vaccine or cure.
Bets are on that this is the one that's gonna slay me.

Malaria
Yet another mosquito disease. It could be me, but it seems that mosquito extermination should be an Indian priority.

TB, Diptheria, Tetanus and Typhoid
Horrible, horrible diseases. I'm sure. I did get vaccinated for them though. Coming from Glasgow, I've already been vaccinated for TB though. I'm not worried!

Rabies
I didn't take this one either. It was very expensive.
Now, I know with my history of being attacked by anything with more than 2 legs on a regular basis, that this probably isn't wise. But I looked at it like this: What are the statistical chances of me being mauled by rodents, parrots, dogs and monkeys two years in a row?
See. It makes sense!

Amoebic dysentery and Giardiasis just sound too bloody dreadful to read up on...

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Originally posted by shavixmir
People who tell you vaccinations don't hurt are the same sort of people who tell you that circumcision isn't painful. They are scoundrels and blatant liars.
Not that I want to compare having your foreskin sliced off with being repeatedly jabbed like a pin cushion, but I am suffering as I type. If you wish to pity me, now is the time to do so.

Seemingly ...[text shortened]... ic dysentery and Giardiasis
just sound too bloody dreadful to read up on...[/b]
Betting starts at $50, and I give good odds.

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Originally posted by shavixmir

Amoebic dysentery and Giardiasis just sound too bloody dreadful to read up on...
Dysentery is an illness involving severe diarrhea that is often associated with blood in the feces. It is caused by ingestion of food containing bacteria, a disease in which inflammation of the intestines affect the body significantly. Amoebic dysentery is transmitted by contaminated water, and is well known as a "travellers dysentery" because of its prevalence in developing nations, or "Montezuma's Revenge" (particularly in Mexico), although it is occasionally seen in industrialized countries. Liver infection, and subsequent amoebic abscesses can occur. It can be treated with metronidazole or related azole drugs.

Liver infection.... I hope you took that one too.

Giardiasis doesn't sound too tragic:
Giardiasis (also known as beaver fever) is a disease caused by the flagellate protozoan Giardia lamblia (also Giardia intestinalis). The giardia organism inhabits the digestinal tract of a wide variety of domestic and wild animal species as well as humans. It is a common cause of gastroenteritis in humans, infecting approximately 200 million people worldwide.

Giardiasis is passed via the fecal-oral route. Primary routes are personal contact and contaminated water and food. People who spend time in institutional or day-care environments are more susceptible, as are travelers and those who consume improperly treated water. It is a particular danger to people hiking or backpacking in wilderness areas worldwide. It is zoonotic -- communicable between animals and humans. Major reservoir hosts include beavers, dogs, cats, horses, and cattle.

Symptoms include loss of appetite, lethargy, diarrhea, loose or watery stool, stomach cramps, upset stomach, bloating and flatulence. Symptoms typically begin 1-2 weeks after infection and may wane and reappear cyclically. Symptoms are caused largely by the thick coating of Giardia organisms coating the inside of the small intestine and blocking nutrient absorption. Most people are asymptomatic; only about a third of infected people exhibit symptoms.

Antibiotics used to treat adults include metronidazole, albenzazole and quinacrine. Furazolidone and nitazoxanide may be used in children. Treatment is not always necessary, as the body can defeat the infection by itself.

You really shoulda taken the rabies shot... you know, I'm told there are a lot of rodents and the like in India, I hear they often carry rabies...

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Originally posted by shavixmir
People who tell you vaccinations don't hurt are the same sort of people who tell you that circumcision isn't painful. They are scoundrels and blatant liars.
Not that I want to compare having your foreskin sliced off with being repeatedly jabbed like a pin cushion, but I am suffering as I type. If you wish to pity me, now is the time to do so.

Seemingly ic dysentery and Giardiasis
just sound too bloody dreadful to read up on...[/b]
When we went travelling, my partner and I took rabies, Japanese B Encephelitis, Hep A and B and took anti malaria tablets for the first couple of months.

I'd definitely recommend the rabies vaccine though. I regarded it as absolutely vital. I know a guy who didn't take it and it cost him 4,500 to get a helicopter to airlift him out of some remote Nepalese village to get him to a hospital within 24 hours.

JB Encephelitis was a bit overboard, I think. My girlfriend got a killer headache for days after taking the first dose of this. You can actually get it from the vaccine. An interesting aside. According to the inlay, the u.s. military developed this drug. They tested it out on a few hundred thai children before deeming it safe enough to administer it to their soldiers. Good aul american military. Always helping out poor, unfortunate foreign children.

D

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When I went to Afghanistan I had to have a number of vaccs and one of them (think it was hepatitis) caused me to collapse on the floor with virtually no measurable blood pressure.

A couple of years later I was preparing for a trip to Rwanda and told the vacc nurse that I had gone into shock after having the hepatitis vaccine and was worried about the same thing happening again.

"What happened?" she asked.

I recounted the story, maybe exaggering a little about how a doctor had rushed into the room with a shot of adrenaline...

"Hmmm," she said. "You fainted."

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hey Shav,

get the rabies shot you plonker!!

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Originally posted by knightwest
hey Shav,

get the rabies shot you plonker!!
Everyone's gotta die sometime...

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Originally posted by shavixmir
People who tell you vaccinations don't hurt are the same sort of people who tell you that circumcision isn't painful. They are scoundrels and blatant liars.
Not that I want to compare having your foreskin sliced off with being repeatedly jabbed like a pin cushion, but I am suffering as I type. If you wish to pity me, now is the time to do so.

Seemingly ...[text shortened]... ic dysentery and Giardiasis
just sound too bloody dreadful to read up on...[/b]
Then there is Montazuma's revenge.

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Originally posted by shavixmir
Everyone's gotta die sometime...
True, reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:

"Death awaits you, even if you don't smoke"
Can't remember who said it.

But rabies, man, what a crap way to go, when it is so easily avoidable. Going to India with lots of animals running around, and your bad luck with animals, it's just plain irresponsible to not get the shot.

Maybe we should start a RHP collection so Shavi can get his rabies shot.

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Originally posted by knightwest
True, reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:

"Death awaits you, even if you don't smoke"
Can't remember who said it.

But rabies, man, what a crap way to go, when it is so easily avoidable. Going to India with lots of animals running around, and your bad luck with animals, it's just plain irresponsible to not get the shot.

Maybe we should start a RHP collection so Shavi can get his rabies shot.
As from today it's too late anyways.

It's a 4 week project and I'm leaving in 3 weeks and 6 days...

May the force be with me (or at the very least a hospital with immunglobine).

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Originally posted by shavixmir
As from today it's too late anyways.

It's a 4 week project and I'm leaving in 3 weeks and 6 days...

May the force be with me (or at the very least a hospital with immunglobine).
you can still start the course, fool

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Shav.. you write too much.. why don't you write a book and get paid for your efforts.. And let the ones who want to read your humm.. pay for it..

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Originally posted by knightwest
you can still start the course, fool
It's too expensive, sucker.. 😉

Don't worry. If I get bitten and die frothing at my mouth, feel happy for me that I didn't die in a geriatric home.

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Originally posted by CenterNut
Shav.. you write too much.. why don't you write a book and get paid for your efforts.. And let the ones who want to read your humm.. pay for it..
One day CenterNut, one day...

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Originally posted by shavixmir
As from today it's too late anyways.

It's a 4 week project and I'm leaving in 3 weeks and 6 days...

May the force be with me (or at the very least a hospital with immunglobine).
In that case get good insurance, that'll pay for a helicopter to get u from wherever u are to a hospital.

The vaccine doesn't stop u getting rabies, it just gives u more time to get to the hospital to get the "after vaccine". I dunno what the proper term is.

D