Word: toxoid
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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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...
...flesh, Dr. Norman A. Christensen of the Mayo Clinic urged his colleagues at the A.M.A. to embark on a crusade. What he wants is nothing less than an all-out campaign to eradicate tetanus in the U.S. by having every man, woman and child immunized with toxoid and periodic booster shots...
...human body through any penetrating wound, through the unhealed navel of the newborn, and through drug addicts' contaminated dope. There is so little that even the best of medical centers can do once the disease has developed, Dr. Christensen insists prevention is the only reliable cure. Tetanus toxoid is cheap and safe; it rarely causes unwanted reactions. It should first be given in a course of three shots paced a month apart, he says. There should be a booster a year later and every five years thereafter...
...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...