Immunizations for Older students...

[freshbeatschris]

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I don't know if any of you have started your immunizations yet, but if you have, I would like to ask you a few questions. Those of you who are 30 or older and had measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella immunizations and/or disease when you were a child, did your titers show that you were still immune today? If so, how immune are you? Well in the clear, or barely scraping by?

It is going to cost me $190 to get titers drawn for those four diseases. I had all of the immunizations and I was sick with chicken pox 23 years ago. I am wondering if I need to be immunized again, or should I risk it and get the titers drawn in hopes that I am still in the clear? My school requires that we have quantitative titers drawn, not just yes/no titers.

Unfortunately, I have been poked for TB FOUR times in my life! 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1992... none of them are the correct test, nor were my bumps read and recorded by a health professional, so I need to have TB done for the FIFTH TIME!!! That sucks.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Chris

 

[Moxxie]

I don't know if any of you have started your immunizations yet, but if you have, I would like to ask you a few questions. Those of you who are 30 or older and had measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella immunizations and/or disease when you were a child, did your titers show that you were still immune today? If so, how immune are you? Well in the clear, or barely scraping by?

It is going to cost me $190 to get titers drawn for those four diseases. I had all of the immunizations and I was sick with chicken pox 23 years ago. I am wondering if I need to be immunized again, or should I risk it and get the titers drawn in hopes that I am still in the clear? My school requires that we have quantitative titers drawn, not just yes/no titers.

Unfortunately, I have been poked for TB FOUR times in my life! 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1992... none of them are the correct test, nor were my bumps read and recorded by a health professional, so I need to have TB done for the FIFTH TIME!!! That sucks.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Chris

Chris -

While I'm not quite 30 (I'm 26), I did have to have the varicella titer done last year. It had been 22 years since I had chicken pox, but my titers were fine. I had records of all the other shots so I didn't have to have those titers taken.

Have you checked at the dept of health? They might do the titers for less than $190.

Oh and as far as the TB test goes, I've had to be poked twice in the last year (a requirement to work at the VA). The second time the bump went down so fast I forgot to have it checked 48 hours later. I had to plead with the nurse to avoid being injected a third time. The VA requires all empoyees to be tested every year (but there are a lot of patients at my hospital with TB, so the risk is there).

 

[Trancelucent1]

I don't know if any of you have started your immunizations yet, but if you have, I would like to ask you a few questions. Those of you who are 30 or older and had measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella immunizations and/or disease when you were a child, did your titers show that you were still immune today? If so, how immune are you? Well in the clear, or barely scraping by?

It is going to cost me $190 to get titers drawn for those four diseases. I had all of the immunizations and I was sick with chicken pox 23 years ago. I am wondering if I need to be immunized again, or should I risk it and get the titers drawn in hopes that I am still in the clear? My school requires that we have quantitative titers drawn, not just yes/no titers.

Unfortunately, I have been poked for TB FOUR times in my life! 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1992... none of them are the correct test, nor were my bumps read and recorded by a health professional, so I need to have TB done for the FIFTH TIME!!! That sucks.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Chris

Get used to the Tb test...I believe that check it regularly if you end up working at a hospital. Better to be safe than sorry 🙂 Good luck!

 

[ICA]

If you have some free time before pharm school starts, try getting some hospital volunteer work in (not necessarily in the pharmacy department). They usually have vaccination requirements, and if you do not have health insurance, some hospitals will provide these to you for FREE!

I had some titers drawn, TB test, etc while I was volunteering at UCSF. It looked like I needed a re-charge on my MMR, so I got a free shot of that, too.

 

[dgroulx]

My varicella titer was still good at age 45. I needed another MMR, it was not good. I also needed my tetanus/DPT and a hep B series.

UF made us get titers again right before rotations. My hep B didn't show immunity and I had to start the sequence again. I also had a positive PPD and had to have a chest x-ray.

 

[freshbeatschris]

My varicella titer was still good at age 45. I needed another MMR, it was not good. I also needed my tetanus/DPT and a hep B series.

UF made us get titers again right before rotations. My hep B didn't show immunity and I had to start the sequence again. I also had a positive PPD and had to have a chest x-ray.

How do you think you ended up with a positive PPD? Are you a smoker, by any chance? That had to have been scary. What did the x-ray show?

I know I'm good on tetanus as I got into a brawl with a chain link fence a few years back and the sucker gave my pinky toe a nice chunk of steel as a reminder. I had to get the chunk removed and the nurse would not let me leave without the Td shot (even though I tried to get out of there without getting poked by her! 😱 )

It sounds like I'm going to need the MMR again. Crap. I don't like needles.

Chris

 

[dgroulx]

How do you think you ended up with a positive PPD? Are you a smoker, by any chance? That had to have been scary. What did the x-ray show?

It was negative when I started school, but positive 3 years later. I may have been exposed to it while working at a pharmacy or hospital. It could also have been a false positive. My chest x-ray showed no signs of TB, so I was okayed for rotations.

 

[spacecowgirl]

It's not uncommon to be positive for TB, and if you work at a hospital or long-term care facility, yup, you'll have to get it done yearly.

I got the Hep B series, and since I work at a hospital, I get my immunizations for free! You should also check with your student health center in addition to the health department for lower cost immunizations.

 

[polgal81]

My husband tested positive for TB after doing the TB skin test. My parents also tested positive for it. My husband is from India and my parents are from Poland and I have heard from all of our International friends that they tested positive also. I'm not sure if it's an international thing - my husband and parents say they got a live vaccine for it (or something like that) back in their very younger years, which is why they test positive. I know for my husband, he had to take isoniazid for 6 months to kill the TB infection.

 

[usi]

I had the BCG when I was a kid. I swear that my ppd looked positive, but the nurse that read it said is negative. She said you have to feel for a bump, not just to look at it.
The whole thing sounds like is leaving big room for interpretation 🙄

 

[spacecowgirl]

My husband tested positive for TB after doing the TB skin test. My parents also tested positive for it. My husband is from India and my parents are from Poland and I have heard from all of our International friends that they tested positive also. I'm not sure if it's an international thing - my husband and parents say they got a live vaccine for it (or something like that) back in their very younger years, which is why they test positive. I know for my husband, he had to take isoniazid for 6 months to kill the TB infection.

The BCG vaccine is not given in the US, but is very common in other countries. If you get that vax, you'll test "positive" for TB for the rest of your life.

 

[polgal81]

The BCG vaccine is not given in the US, but is very common in other countries. If you get that vax, you'll test "positive" for TB for the rest of your life.

That definitely would explain why my husband, parents, and foreign friends tested positive when doing the TB Skin test. Thanks for the additional info on this.

Best Regards,
polgal81

 

[starsweet]

The BCG vaccine is not given in the US, but is very common in other countries. If you get that vax, you'll test "positive" for TB for the rest of your life.

Yup... my mom who is from India tested "positive" for TB here and was given TB medication for a year before they finally figured it out that she'd had the BCG vaccine as a kid.