Everyone over 40 needs another mmr?

yerushamama

Mon, Jun 03 2019, 9:06 am

nchr wrote:

That you cannot or that it is not considered necessary to vaccinate additional times? The latter is common medical opinion on the matter.

At Tipat Chalav, they told me that they won't vaccinate someone who had the MMR twice as an adult, even if bloodtest shows that they are not immune.

JoyInTheMorning

Mon, Jun 03 2019, 9:23 am

amother [ Rose ] wrote:

There is something wrong for those of us who want to minimize the toxic load on our body, getting an MMR for just rubella, or a DTaP for just Tetanus. It's called unnecessary.

Just to clarify. I looked this up yesterday. There are three vaccines that protect against tetanus:
-- DTaP, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. The "a" is for the acellular version of the pertussis vaccine. There are fewer adverse effects with the acellular than cellular, but immunity goes down faster over the years. DTaP is given to children under 7.
-- Tdap has the same amount of tetanus vaccine but reduced amounts of the diphtheria and pertussis vaccines, and is given for adolescents and adults.
-- Td has the same amount of tetanus vaccine but reduced amounts of diphtheria vaccine and no pertussis vaccine. Like the Tdap, it's given to children and adults.

So as an adult, you would *never* get the DTaP. You'd possibly get the Tdap, but you could request the Td, which is pretty light on anything besides the tetanus vaccine. Not such a bad deal, it seems to me.

I also wonder why all vaccines aren't available separately. Immunologists probably know; perhaps someone here could explain it. I'd guess it's because it's hard enough for parents to get their kids up to date on vaccinations even with combination vaccines; there's be a lower rate of vaccination if shots were separate. Also, I'd guess that kids get a *lower* total dose of other ingredients in the shots if they get combined vaccines. So in some ways, combination shots are actually good news for people on the fence about vaccines because of the other ingredients.

Anyway, you have to deal with the world as it is. I care very much about protecting myself from tetanus, so I'm perfectly willing to get the Tdap or Td. I think all the diseases that the MMR protect against are undesirable, so I like the idea of a combination vaccine for that.

JoyInTheMorning

Mon, Jun 03 2019, 9:26 am

yerushamama wrote:

At Tipat Chalav, they told me that they won't vaccinate someone who had the MMR twice as an adult, even if bloodtest shows that they are not immune.

I'd guess that's more of an issue of using available resources effectively than anything else.

Miri1

Mon, Jun 03 2019, 11:48 am

JoyInTheMorning wrote:

I understood from my pediatrician that that particular combination of the vaccination was found to be more effective (the diptheria part, not sure about the pertussis). That would explain why there is no individual tetanus shot. Not a scientist, so that would be a very simplified explanation.

Last edited by Miri1 on Mon, Jun 03 2019, 11:56 am; edited 2 times in total

amother

Babyblue

Mon, Jun 03 2019, 11:50 am

Over 40, vaccinated as a child. Titers show immunity.

Chayalle

Mon, Jun 03 2019, 12:16 pm

I was tested in the hospital when I was giving birth to my oldest, and was not immune. They gave me a 2nd shot.

This year I gave DH the choice - either get your titers checked, or get a 2nd MMR. He opted to just get a 2nd MMR (because my sister gave it to him at the family Chanuka party, and this way he didn't have to go to the lab....men....)

1091

Mon, Jun 03 2019, 12:44 pm

I just came from my GP. She said she sees the biggest problem for people between 40-50 because the vaccines were often given before age 1, about 25-30% aren’t immune.