My brother’s office gives everyone a flu shot and on the consent form it stated that if you have or have had GB don’t take it. I assume that would also mean CIDP. I am worried about taking them. I know the CDC states that you should if you have auto immume problems, but my gut says NO…

[B]Hi Duane,

All vaccines cna be the cause of GBS/CIDP. I know that most literature doesn’t give you those facts but the people on this website can tell you it certainly does cause GBS/CIDP.

Wishing you the best[/B]

Hello,
I think the best one to help you with advice is one of our members named NORB. Norb and his wife made a trip to Thailand. Look for a post by Norb and click on his name to send him an email or click on members list to find him.

there are a lot of differences in how different vaccines are made. Some are made of a viral protein, some to dead (inactivated virus), some to live virus (often made weak–called attenuated), and some to the toxic substance the virus causes (toxoid).
HepB is protein.
measles, mumps, and rubella and chicken pox and the kind of polio vaccine taken by mouth are live or weakened live virus vaccines.
Polio taken as a shot and hepatitis A are dead viruses.
Tetanus and diphtheria are toxoids.
Influenza can be live attentuated (flu-mist) or dead virus, but I think the amount of immune response can depend on previous years varieties of flu and how close they are to the one in that years’ vaccine.

As a general rule, vaccines that contain whole viruses-alive, weakened, or dead make a more robust immune response and also are more often associated with GBS. Hepatitis B does not get a lot of bad press from GBS and in fact we consider it one of the gentler vaccines to give in immunodeficient children, in children who have completed chemotherapy, and in children who have had a bone marrow transplant. Hepatitis A is another story…..
WithHope

Hi: My doctor won’t give me any type of vaccine, he won’t even ask. He believes that I possibly got GBS from the flu shot 11 yrs. ago. So I will never get any of them. Joan

[Well,
Interesting topic, in that most every CIDP sufferer (read all) had a vaccine, just before onset. W me it was a Tetinus Booster (sp?)

Right now, my son isabout ready to Graduate HS and go to College, I’m debating boycott of the Menengitis Vaccine.But, consider this; the NIH has the incidence of CIDP at 1 in 100, 000. I’m wondering what the incidence of Lockjaw or Menengitis is, by comparison?

I mean, 1/100,000 is a pretty darmn slim chance. But does anybody know if the 1/100,000 is acurate?

I’ve met 12 sufferers in one of 4 infusion centers, that I know of, in a community of just over 750,000 people, if there are 50-total, for example, might this suggest disinformation?

Also, if vaccines are so much the cause, if all this, isn’t it intersting that my Neuro (an most) wil niot draw the connection?

Anybody know a good Vaccine Lawyer in Virginia? (If there IS such thing as a “good Lawyer”, sorry- Legal Eagles, I couldn’t resist;-)

Peace ibn Your Journey
Victory in Your Quest

Eric

My CIDP (which is NOT responding,after 3 months ov IvIg) came on after a teninus booster!

None of my Docs will make the connection, further, my Primary Care Phys Says he “doesn’t have record of all the shots I’ve been given!” (though he referred me?)
I spoke w a Vaccine Atty, who asked me to get all the records together, then I hit their stonewall. I’m not a “sue happy” guy, but, if SSDI doesn’t come through, I’m pretty well screwed? Anybody have any suggestions?

Eric

Hi,

I had a tetanus shot and lst hepatitis B shot in Aug of 2004. Then I had the second Hep. B in Oct 04. I came down with this strange intestinal flue after Thanksgiving and then had symtoms of metallic taste, achy muscles in mid Dec. and then numbness/tingling in hands and feet and within 3 days of that I couldn’t walk and was hospitalized. I think the vaccines were too much for my immune system. I am asthmatic and highly allergic to things and have been ever since I was a child. I wonder how many of the GBSers have had previous illnesses that compromised their immune system and then the shots just put us over the edge. I don’t think it is one thing that gives you GBS but a combination of things that finally does your immune system in. I know my 2nd cousin thinks it was a Tetanus Shot that triggered his GBS which was 18 years ago and now he has CIPD.

Caroline
Michigan

I will back Brandy on the flu shots. For me, I will let the facts speak for themselves. I worked in a hospital, so it was almost mandentory that we get the flu shot. I got my yearly flu shot in November, 1997. In March, 1998 I was showing the very early signs of CIDP. Not knowing what I had yet, I got another flu shot in November, 1998. Within a weeks time, I was literally knocked off my feet. The neurologist who diagnosed me said “never get the flu shot again”. My family doctor would not approve a flu shot, as well as a walk-in-clinic.

That’s enough to convince me, plus I listen to my inner feeling. I will not get a flu shot. One thing I will never know, would I have had a much milder case of CIDP, had I not gotten that shot in 1998?