Tetanus
Vaccination
Article
Description:
You have every right to closely question
me on the
tetanus vaccine, since that was the last vaccine I abandoned.
Date of Publication:4/6/2003
Tetanus
Vaccination
by Dr Mendelsohn MD (The People’s Doctor Newsletter 1976-1988)
You have every
right to closely question me on the
tetanus vaccine, since that was the
last vaccine I abandoned. It wasn’t hard for me to give up vaccines for
whooping cough, measles, and
rubella because of their disabling and
sometimes deadly side effects. The
mumps vaccine, a high-risk,
low-benefit product, struck me and plenty of other doctors as silly from
the moment it was introduced. Arguments for the
diphtheria vaccine were
vitiated by epidemics during the past 15 years which showed the same
death rate and the same severity of illness in those who were vaccinated
vs. those who were not vaccinated. As for
smallpox, even the government
finally gave up that vaccine in 1970, and I gave up on the polio vaccine
when Jonas Salk showed that the best way to catch polio in the United
States was to be near a child who recently had taken the Sabin vaccine.
But the
tetanus vaccine exercised a hold on me for a much longer time.
As you point
out, I gave up belief in this vaccine in stages. For a while, I still
held onto the notion that farm families and people who work around
stables should continue to take
tetanus shots. But in spite of my early
indoctrination with fear of "rusty nails," in recent years, I have
developed a greater fear of the hypodermic needle. My reasons are:
1) Scientific
evidence shows that too-frequent
tetanus boosters actually may interfere
with the immune reaction.
2) There has
been a gradual retreat of even the most conservative authorities from
giving
tetanus boosters every one year to every two years to every five
years to every 10 years (as now recommended by the American Academy of
Pediatrics), and according to some, every 20 years. All these numbers
are based on guesses rather than on hard scientific evidence.
3) There has
been a growing recognition that no controlled scientific study (in which
half the patients were given the vaccine and the other half were given
injections of sterile water) has ever been carried out to prove the
safety and effectiveness of the
tetanus vaccine. Evidence for the
vaccine comes from epidemiologic studies which are by nature
controversial and which do not satisfy the criteria for scientific
proof.
4) The
tetanus
vaccine over the decades has been progressively weakened in order to
reduce the considerable reaction (fever and swelling) it used to cause.
Accompanying this reduction in reactivity has been a concomitant
reduction in antigenicity (the ability to confer protection). Therefore,
there is a good chance that today’s
tetanus vaccine is about as
effective as tap water.
fever
5) Until the
last few years, government statistics admitted that 40 percent of the
child population of the U.S. was not immunized. For all those decades,
where were the
tetanus cases from all those rusty nails?
6) There now
exists a growing theoretical concern which links immunizations to the
huge increase in recent decades of auto-immune diseases, e.g.,
rheumatoid arthritis,
multiple sclerosis,
lupus erythematosus, lymphoma,
and leukemia. In one case, Guillain-Barre paralysis from swine flu
vaccine, the relationship turned out to be more than just theoretical.
flu
In preparing my
courtroom testimony on behalf of a child who allegedly was brain-damaged
as a result of the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis,
tetanus) vaccine, I
reviewed the prescribing information (package insert) for the Connaught
Laboratories product which was administered to this child. The 1975
and.1977 package insert information which measured seven-and-a-half
inches long listed three scientific references in support of the
indications, contraindications, warnings, cautions, and adverse
reactions to this vaccine. By 1978, the length of the insert had grown
to 13 1/2 inches, and the number of scientific references had increased
to 11. By 1980, the package insert was 18 inches long, and the
references numbered 14. Of those newly-added references, seven (three
from U.S. medical journals and four from foreign medical journals) dealt
specifically with reactions to the
tetanus DPT portion of the (toxoid)
vaccine.
An article in
the Archives of Neurology (1972) described brachial plexus neuropathy
(which can lead to paralysis of the arm) prom
tetanus toxoi Four
patients who received only
tetanus toxoid noticed the onset of limb weak
ness from six to 21 days after the inoculation. A 1966 article published
in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports the first
case of "Peripheral Neuropathy .following
tetanus Toxoid
Administration." A 23-year- old white medical student received an
injection of
tetanus toxoid into his rightupper arm after an abrasion of
the right knee while playing tennis. Several hours later, he developed a
wrist drop of his right hand. He later suffered from complete motor and
sensory paralysis over the distribution of the right radial nerve (one
of the major nerves innervating the arm and hand) One month later, no
residual motor or sensory deficit could be found.
Reference is
made to an article in the Journal of Neurology, 1977, entitled "Unusual
Neurological Complication following
tetanus Toxoid Administration." The
author reports a 36-year-old female who received tetatus toxoid in her
left upper arm following a wound to her finger. Five days later, she
noticed a weakness first of the right, and then of the left and later of
both legs. She complained of dizziness, instability, lethargy, chest
discomfort, difficulty in swallowing, and inarticulate speech. S
staggered when she walked, and she could take only a few steps. Her EEG
showed some abnormalities. After a month, she was discharged without
neurologic disturbance, but she continued to feel weak and anxious.
Examinations during the next 11 months showed continued emotional
instability and some paresthesias (numbness and tingling) in the
extremities. The medical diagnosis was "a rapidly progressing neuropathy
with involvement of cranial nerves, myelopathy, and encephalopathy."
The Journal of
Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 1973, carried an article entitled
"Hypersensitivity to
tetanus Toxoid," and in a volume entitled
"Proceedings of the II International Conference on
tetanus" (published
by Hans Huber, Bern, Switzerland, 1967), an article appeared entitled
"Clinical Reactions to
tetanus Toxoid."
A 44-year-old
article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (1940) was
entitled "Allergy Induced by Immunization with
tetanus Toxoid." That
same year, an article in the British Medical Journal reported on
"Anaphylaxis (a form of shock) following Administration of
tetanus Toxoid." In 1969, a German medical journal reported a case of paralysis
of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (the nerve to the voicebox) after a
booster injection of
tetanus toxoid. The patient developed hoarseness
and was unable to speak loudly, but the nerve paralysis subsided
completely after approximately two months.
Should your
doctor reassure you that
tetanus vaccine is completely safe, or that
"the benefits outweigh the risks," or that you should have a shot "just
in case," why not share these citations with him?
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