Hepatitis B Vaccine Safe?

Nurses General Nursing

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I am starting nursing school this fall and I need to decide whether or not to get the hepatitis b vaccine. I have been reading a lot about it and there is so much conflicting information. I wanted to know what people think about the vaccine and whether or not you have had it.

Thanks

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
apparently the hepatitis b vaccine has been linked to immunological and neurological disorders, especially ms. which makes me pretty nervous.

my md mentioned the this, but he also said the evidence is "flimsy, but intriguing." i chose to get the hep b vaccine anyway because i have more concerns about getting it in a health care setting than i worry about remote side effects. known risk v. possible risk. if i didn't work in healthcare, i probably would have declined the vax.

also, seeing patients in liver failure, with liver cancer, and hepatic encephalopathy positively "did it" for me. with hep b there's the weirdness/uniqueness that you can pick it up from saliva, and it's such a hardy virus that can live so long outside the body.

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Specializes in LPN, Peds, Public Health.

Yeah I would need much more info than just an MD saying it... there are some docs out there who are opposed to vaccinations and I would just really need some hard evidence to this. I'm the same, the possible risk from the vaccine vs. the risk of exposure in health care... yeah I took the vaccine!

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
I'm sorry, but where did you get this information from? Please... I'd like to know the source so I can check this out, I have never heard of such a thing (not from reliable sources at least) and I have been giving this vaccine, and even had this vaccine (entire series x2) and know many many many people who have been vaccinated by this vaccine and not one single person has even had an adverse reaction.

There is conflicting research.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15365133

Also note the related citations in the upper right corner. One study supports a correlation between demyelinating disease and the hep B vaccine, and another does not.

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

I had two rounds of it back in 2004ish because my first run didn't take. Never had anything other than annoyance at the number of shots.

Tait

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Specializes in Simulation.
I'm sorry, but where did you get this information from? Please... I'd like to know the source so I can check this out, I have never heard of such a thing (not from reliable sources at least) and I have been giving this vaccine, and even had this vaccine (entire series x2) and know many many many people who have been vaccinated by this vaccine and not one single person has even had an adverse reaction.

If you do a google search for "hepatitis b vaccine MS" you get 123,000 hits. So there must be something to it.

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If you do a google search for "hepatitis b vaccine MS" you get 123,000 hits. So there must be something to it.

Gotta love that reasoning... so...

if you search Google for "black helicopters" you get 1,200,000 hits... so... every 10th black helicopter victim might get MS from hep B vaccine?

Right.

There are dangers to every medication and vaccine. There are dangers waiting for when you don't get vaccinated. Perhaps one can easily find employment at a facility that will let you waiver away your injury compensation if you are injured by something you could have been vaccinated against. Perhaps not.

Where the most risk lies is up for you to decide.

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If you do a google search for "hepatitis b vaccine MS" you get 123,000 hits. So there must be something to it.

You need to look for reliable sources/studies, not how many hits you got on google. ;)

I don't know of anyone that has had a serious reaction to the Hep B series.

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You need to look for reliable sources/studies, not how many hits you got on google. ;)

I don't know of anyone that has had a serious reaction to the Hep B series.

Exactly. My point was a bit harsher in an attempt to stimulate critical thinking.

Here's one for everyone. I personally have several areas of demyelination. I've had several courses of everything that everyone takes, mostly back when Thimerosal was in everything (as a child, then do them over again several times in the Army every time you turn around, throwing in some nice ones that no one ever gets). Then again, I used to spend a lot of time in the woods when I was a kid, and am fairly sure more than one tick bite was infected with whatever long before Lyme's disease was a news item. I've also had more than my fair share of bumps, bruises and breaks, insult, illness and injury. Probably fell on my head too much and out of at least one too many perfectly good aircraft. Where would I even start to put the blame?

Would I take another series of anything if circumstance demanded?

Hell yes.

Life happens. Even if you refuse to live it.

***

And just for fun...

Did you have any objections to any of the vaccines you've had or may be required to administer that contain:

human albumin, bovine serum, hydrolized gelatin, chicken embryo, rhesus monkey fetal components, vesicle fluid from calf skins, chick embryonic fluid, mouse serum proteins, fetal bovine serum, guinea pig embryo cells, and human diploid cells from aborted fetal tissue ?

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Specializes in LPN, Peds, Public Health.
Exactly. My point was a bit harsher in an attempt to stimulate critical thinking.

Here's one for everyone. I personally have several areas of demyelination. I've had several courses of everything that everyone takes, mostly back when Thimerosal was in everything (as a child, then do them over again several times in the Army every time you turn around, throwing in some nice ones that no one ever gets). Then again, I used to spend a lot of time in the woods when I was a kid, and am fairly sure more than one tick bite was infected with whatever long before Lyme's disease was a news item. I've also had more than my fair share of bumps, bruises and breaks, insult, illness and injury. Probably fell on my head too much and out of at least one too many perfectly good aircraft. Where would I even start to put the blame?

Would I take another series of anything if circumstance demanded?

Hell yes.

Life happens. Even if you refuse to live it.

***

And just for fun...

Did you have any objections to any of the vaccines you've had or may be required to administer that contain:

human albumin, bovine serum, hydrolized gelatin, chicken embryo, rhesus monkey fetal components, vesicle fluid from calf skins, chick embryonic fluid, mouse serum proteins, fetal bovine serum, guinea pig embryo cells, and human diploid cells from aborted fetal tissue ?

I love it :) Thanks...

I am very pro-vaccine. For myself and for others. If there is something I can take, I'm taking it!

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Do the risks associated with the vaccine outweigh the risks of contracting Hep B?

That's what you need to think about.

I don't exactly like vaccines. But I don't want Hep B.

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Specializes in Simulation.
Gotta love that reasoning... so...

if you search Google for "black helicopters" you get 1,200,000 hits... so... every 10th black helicopter victim might get MS from hep B vaccine?

Right.

There are dangers to every medication and vaccine. There are dangers waiting for when you don't get vaccinated. Perhaps one can easily find employment at a facility that will let you waiver away your injury compensation if you are injured by something you could have been vaccinated against. Perhaps not.

Where the most risk lies is up for you to decide.

The lack of reliable information is why I started the thread. If I trusted what I found on google I would not have posted it. I like to be informed before I inject something into my body. In my opinion history has shown that blindly taking vaccines and assuming they are all safe isn't the best idea.

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The lack of reliable information is why I started the thread. If I trusted what I found on google I would not have posted it. I like to be informed before I inject something into my body. In my opinion history has shown that blindly taking vaccines and assuming they are all safe isn't the best idea.

As others have stated, it all comes down to risk vs benefits. No. its not a good idea to just take whatever vaccine that comes down the pike without at least looking at its risks. But it most cases a vaccine is worth it, especially if you are at high risk of being exposed to that disease.

The vaccine debate can get really nasty (not on this site) and I've been in some really heated debates. Look at how much debate surrounded the MMR vaccine and we found out that the study was flawed. Start with the CDC to at least get the known side effects and work from there. There are a lot of anti-vax sites out there that can really scare you, so be careful. No vaccine will come without side effects. It is also good to talk with you own MD to discuss your health and if a vaccine is ok for you.

Hep B is nothing to mess around with. From what I have read, there is hint that it is linked to MS, but the study I saw had more people (% ) getting MS that did NOT have the HEP B vaccine.

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