Word: toxoid
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...October 1990 meeting of the Army Ethics committee concerned itself with abotulinum toxoid vaccine, and they weren't too pleased with what laboratory research into the drug had turned up. Army physicians weren't confident it would work, and the committee decided it should not be used on troops without "an abbreviated oral informed consent statement." In other words, they should be told. But the Department of Defense nixed that, and went ahead with thousands of warning-free botulism jabs in the run-up to the Gulf...
...taken from human adults were injected into mice. Almost immediately, the mice began replicating the cells. Within three weeks they had human immune systems with nearly correct proportions of all the major types of white cells found in human blood. Moreover, when the researchers injected these mice with tetanus toxoid, most of the animals produced human antietanus antibodies, further proof that their new immune systems were functioning as though they were naturally human...
Virtually every U.S. infant born under a doctor's care gets three shots, spaced a month apart, of a three-way vaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus, or "lockjaw." Most children receive a booster shot a year later. Many get additional tetanus toxoid boosters in school or college-and, of course, in the armed forces...
...immunity against tetanus for twelve or more years after those first four shots in childhood, and certainly should not need a booster more often than every ten years. More frequent revaccinations are not only unnecessary but potentially dangerous, say the doctors, since they may provoke allergic reactions against the toxoid itself...
...emergency patient has had the toxoid within a couple of years, said Dr. Christensen, all he needs is an immediate booster. But if he has never had toxoid, or is unconscious and cannot answer questions, the doctor has a difficult choice. He can give toxoid, which takes a while to build up immunity and may work too slowly. Or he can give tetanus antitoxin, which confers brief but prompt immunity. Trouble is, the antitoxin, almost always prepared from the blood of horses, carries a heavy risk of serum sickness, which can be as deadly as tetanus...