Not concidered to be vulnerable

[silvermaneuk]

I asked at my doctors yesterday about the flu vaccine. As it says that vulnerable people can have it for free. One of the criteria listed is immune affected illness. Apparently M.E is not considered an illness where you qualify, despite the fact your immune system is affected!

I was like...huh? Its one of the main symptoms!!??

Bizarre!

 

[justy]

From the NHS choices website:

For most people, H1N1 flu is a mild illness lasting seven to ten days. However, some groups of people are more at risk of serious illness if they catch flu, such as the elderly, pregnant women and some people with other illnesses. Of the nine people who have died with flu since early September, eight were confirmed as having H1N1. Of these, the majority had underlying health conditions.

People with the following conditions are known to be particularly at risk:

•chronic (long-term) lung disease
•chronic heart disease
•chronic kidney disease
•chronic liver disease
•chronic neurological disease (neurological disorders include chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease)
•immunosuppression (whether caused by disease or treatment)
•diabetes mellitus

Full link here:

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/12December/Pages/vulnerable-urged-to-take-swine-flu-vaccine.aspx

I suggest you print this out and speak to the practice manager. If they still refuse then i woiuld make a complaint and see your M.P.
They will never agree in the NHS that M.E has immune dysfunctions, so you have to argue the neurological route. The British Govt recognises M.E as a neurological disorder as set out by the WHO (in 1969)

I wouldnt have the jab, as i worry about the immune consequences, but as i said on another thread i was refused antivirals when i had suspected swine flu as i was told that i dont have an immune dysfunction. Although i am in the at risk group for: Neurological disease, Asthma, Fibrotic band in my lung (diagnosed 3 years ago by CT scan), recent treatment with steroids for Asthma, pleurisy and pneumponia in the last 3 years.
I am going to discuss this with my another GP in my surgery next week, and if i dont get anywhere with him im going to make a complaint.

 

[silvermaneuk]

I worry about the consequence's if I dont have the jab.

I was severely ill when I caught asian flu, took me ages to recover.

Every flu I have had has given me concequences, one of which led to pneumonia, and another Bells Palsy, and several bad chest infections.

I have avoided having the vaccines for the reason you have specified, but I can no longer ignore the concequences, I have had to endure as of a result of NOT having it.

 

[SOC]

My daughter and I didn't get flu vaccines last year because our PCP said we weren't high risk. All people over 65yo were high risk, though. Humph!

Not surprisingly, since my daughter is in college, we BOTH got swine flu. It was bad. Both of us got pneumonia (treated at home with ABX). I was bedbound for months, and daughter should have been, but managed to finish the semester by collapsing into a 5 hour sleep every day when she got home from school after dragging herself through the day. Neither of us was fully over the swine flu for at least 6 months. The whole thing was ugly.

This year we got the flu vaccine from our new ME/CFS specialist as soon as it was available. We had some symptoms immediately after that may has been the result of the shot, but might have just been coincidence. Both of us had very minor flares, and daughter had some extra POTS symptoms -- nothing like the misery of months of illness from getting H1N1.

We prefer the flu vaccine to the risk of the flu (especially H1N1), because without the flu vaccine we always get some kind of flu. PWCs have different rxns to lots of things, so everybody has to figure out their own best path.

I suspect that there's some stage of this illness where we react to everything (immune hyperdrive) and another where we catch everything (immune exhaustion). The effectiveness and wisdom of a vaccine is probably dependent on where on that immune spectrum you are at the time. That's my guess, anyway.

 

[August59]

This is something that has always spiked my "curiosity". I'm 52 years old and I have never had the flu. I had a doctor tell me it was because I still had my tonsils and they boost immune

systems and are able to fight off viruses much quicker than people without tonsils. I don't really buy into this theory, but have read that tonsils are like a "pre-filter" for the immune system.

I took the flu vaccine once about 4 years ago and didn't well at all, so have avoided them since. My GP keeps pushing it on me though and it was not suppose to cost me anything.

 

[Nielk]

My general doctor offered me the flu shot and I declined.
I'm afraid of any type of vaccine.
I've heard too many horror stories.

I have also read somewhere (I forgot where) that the amount of people coming down with the flu has not
declined since the have been giving out the flu shots.

.
they don't even know exactly what strain to protect us from and I have heard personally from people who got sick from receiving the shot