In article ,
"David D Stretch" writes:
|
| On a personal note. I spent effectively 6 months in a semi-rural part
| of central China recently (with a short break in the middle when I had
| to return to the UK unexpectedly). The number of jabs I was advised to
| get before I went did not include Typhoid, and my GP's nurses, who had
| had to phone up people to get advice as to what jabs I ought to get,
| said it wasn't necessary when I asked about it. Additionally, when I
| sliced open my finger 3 days after getting back in March, the A&E
| department, as it was being stiched up, asked if I'd had Typhoid jabs,
| and when I said the last one I had had was back in 1980 after being
| bitten by a rat, they said they didn't think I needed one now. I am
| over 50, though.

Well, typhoid isn't generally an infectious agents of cuts, so they may
have got confused :-)

Apparently, the reason that the recommendation changed is that so many
more people (from the West) were dying from reaction to TAB than were
likely to be saved by it. It gives only a moderate (c. 70%) immunity,
anyway, and is a VERY nasty jab from the reaction point of view. Also,
it rarely kills people in good health who are given even moderate
medical treatment (mainly against dehydration and exhaustion). It is
only acute and persistant diarrhoea, after all.

Tetanus is rather different ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.