| |
Home > Health Screenings > Immunizations
Immunizations
Tetanus/Diphtheria Immunization
Tetanus is an acute, often fatal, disease that is caused by the poison of a certain bacteria. The bacteria usually enters the body through a wound. Stiff muscles and convulsive spasms are characteristic. The stiffness often begins in the jaw (lockjaw) and neck. Diphtheria might also be considered poisonous bacterium. Cases of it are very rarely reported.
Adults need a Td booster shot every 10 years, assuming they had the initial doses as a child. Many adults forget and do not get their boosters until they are injured and realize it's overdue.
Hepatitis B Immunization
Hepatitis B is a serious disease that can cause short-term illness with symptoms of tiredness, loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting, jaundice (yellow skin or eyes), and pain in muscles, joints and the stomach. It can also cause long-term illness leading to liver damage (cirrhosis), liver cancer, and death. Hepatitis B vaccine is considered the first anti-cancer vaccine because it can prevent Hepatitis B, and therefore prevents a form of liver cancer. This immunization is recommended for most children and adolescents through age 18, and for at risk adults. It requires a series of 3 shots.
About 1.25 people in the U.S. have chronic Hepatitis B infection. It is estimated that 200,000 people become infected with Hepatitis B (mostly young adults), more than 11,000 have to be hospitalized because of it, and 4,000-5,000 die from it each year.
Pneumococcal Polysaccharide
Pneumococcal disease kills more people in the United Stated each year than all other vaccine-preventable diseases combined. Pneumococcal disease can lead to serious infections of the lungs (pneumonia), the blood (bacteremia), and the covering of the brain (meningitis).
Anyone can get the disease, however some people are at greater risk. These include people 65 and older, the very young, and people with special health problems such as alcoholism, heart or lung disease, kidney failure, diabetes, HIV infection, or certain types of cancer.
|
