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Virus’s and immunisation in the past

The Polio vaccine invented by Jonathòn salk was given to most children on a sugar lump , a dose was dripped on to the sugar lump, it was a simple way of giving the vaccine without the fear of needles. The smallpox inoculation was achieved by a number of pinpricks, hence the strange rosette we were all left with. But thinking of things medical , have you noticed that apart from proprietary cough linctus , you never get given medicine nowadays, it is all pills and tablets.
Bob
 
oldMohawk said:
The current vaccination process isn't the first one I've attended. There was a Polio epidemic in the early 1950s and someone I knew who died from it.

I was worried at the time and remember standing with hundreds of people in a long queue outside the Public Health Department in Margaret St for a jab. I don't think they had disposable needles back then and the needle they used on me seemed blunt as if it had been used more than once ... :rolleyes:
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it sure fellt like it.phil. i remember them glass syinges.and big needles i think they used em for icing cakes as well .they sure hurt.:weary_face:
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I had the TB jab as a nipper then aged 55 and a nurse I developed TB and the lung damage its caused (plus I was a smoker) led to early retirement from nursing. But think back years ago and TB was a death sentence; these days your on up to three antibiotics for three to six months to clear it... you survive it. I'd been having recurring chest infections for months and I ended up in A&E then ICU. An Indian doctor saw me in A&E and asked me if I'd lost weight and did I wake up sweating at night, I said I did and he said "my friend, you have TB"; he'd seen so much of it back in India he spotted it and tests proved him right...I'd had TB for months :( Like most nurses I knew nothing much about TB and it turns out the vaccine is good for about 15 years or so but that was long enough back then to clear it from the UK. Sadly its slowly on the rise again these days.
 
I remember a big Polio scare in the 1950's, there were 45,000 cases in the UK and hundreds died. It passed around that it could be carried in water and similar to Covid could be transmitted by coughs & sneezes. They closed the local swimming pool for a time and us kids had no swimming lessons at school for several months. I remember we used to play in a brook that ran from Weoley Castle all the way to Bourneville and we were scared to go near it for months after that.

See here that it's come back to affect some of those original victims :
.
 
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Nan used to say if she saw anyone spit in the street, "cancer spreader! "I told mum, she groaned and said, "she means TB." Whether it did or not I don't know. Me and my mate still laugh at this now but I never spit in the street.
Nan's scars were penny sized as I said and they were indented rather than proud. She had a nice complexion and she tanned well and they showed up very white, they never tanned. They reminded me of the end of a cut banana.
 
izzy eckerslike said:
I remember a big Polio scare in the 1950's, there were 45,000 cases in the UK and hundreds died. It passed around that it could be carried in water and similar to Covid could be transmitted by coughs & sneezes. They closed the local swimming pool for a time and us kids had no swimming lessons at school for several months. I remember we used to play in a brook that ran from Weoley Castle all the way to Bourneville and we were scared to go near it for months after that.

See here that it's come back to affect some of those original victims :
.
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I always put a penny in the slot of the little boy with the leg iron. I was insistant. And the animal charity too.
 
Quite right, they seemed like knitting needles to our 5 to 7 year old eyes! I recall quite clearly a steriliser using boiling water in the corner of the room, and glass syringes like garden sprayers. Whenever we got rounded up by the nuns and marched off to the clinic round the corner there was always a murmuring of “is it the needle?” and if you met a crocodile on the way back it was “Did it ‘urt?” with the returning kids holding their arms and grimacing.

Then, when you got there, it was an eye test!

btw, just back from Covid shot, never felt a thing, organisation was excellent. It was at the Staffs County Showground, only problem, the bar was shut.
 
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Another memory awakened, the smallpox scare. I had a Saturday job at a local butcher’s shop. The lady assistant in the shop was chatting to a customer who said “have you had the smallpox thing?”

The reply, “Yes, it’s just like scoring pork!”
 
Vivienne14 said:
I think we had the test at school as I vaguely remember comparing the test with other friends. So what I’m saying is I don’t remember going to my doctor for this. Viv.
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Yes, I'm sure you did, I had the test and jab at Marsh Hill.
On my test half of the little bumps came up, I was very concerned I would get sent to the hospital :oops: but they said I was ok to have the actual jab, still got the small scar on my leg!
 
I had a compulsory group immunisation in 1956 and remember watching some with needle phobia fainting. There were two jabs, one called tabt, and the other for yellow fever. We were on National Service in the RAF.
 
A Sparks said:
Yes, I'm sure you did, I had the test and jab at Marsh Hill.
On my test half of the little bumps came up, I was very concerned I would get sent to the hospital :oops: but they said I was ok to have the actual jab, still got the small scar on my leg!
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That reminds me Nan had one on her leg too about half way up her thigh.Like the other ones on her arn but half the size. She aid she could never wear a mini skirt but they weren't quite that short then.
 
Talking of big needles the one they give to numb your mouth is big and years ago they were massive, Iand the metal things they shoves in my mouth a bit like an egg whisk. I had nightmares in the day time after it. When I was awake if that makes sense. And the smell of the gas and the insensitiveness of them..
 
Yes, I well remember the fainting new recruits, Phil, and that merely upset several others in the queue. Ha ha, they had yet to do the gas training :) But needle technology has much improved today and no one should fear dental procedures due to a needle these days, and most dentists use a deadening swab beforehand. At my age I think I have had more blood tests than hot dinners, but always try to get a nurse to do it rather than a doctor - they are far more experienced. Having said that, the worst jab was given to me by a big black female nurse at the US Embassy when I applied for a visa. She must have been doing dozens every day, but perhaps she didn't like me! :eek:

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Yes, I well remember the fainting new recruits, Phil, and that merely upset several others in the queue. Ha ha, they had yet to do the gas training :) But needle technology has much improved today and no one should fear dental procedures due to a needle these days, and most dentists use a deadening swab beforehand. At my age I think I have had more blood tests than hot dinners, but always try to get a nurse to do it rather than a doctor - they are far more experienced. Having said that, the worst jab was given to me by a big black female nurse at the US Embassy when I applied for a visa. She must have been doing dozens every day, but perhaps she didn't like me! :eek:

Maurice :cool:
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I had a big cyst on my face on the cheek bone/ear which burst I was about 14. I had it drained and dressed and drained and dressed at the outpatients repeatedly. I was really miffed as the young Asian doctor, thought he was god's gift in a white coat sat reading the paper. And I was waiting. And waiting. Then he didn't wash his hands or wear gloves. So I wouldn't let him touch me so he snorted off. I used to hope for the Asian nurse, she was so gentle, but the nervy mature apologetic Irish nurse seemed afraid and jabbed and dabbed and it really did hurt.
 
sospiri said:
Yes, I well remember the fainting new recruits, Phil, and that merely upset several others in the queue. Ha ha, they had yet to do the gas training :) But needle technology has much improved today and no one should fear dental procedures due to a needle these days, and most dentists use a deadening swab beforehand. At my age I think I have had more blood tests than hot dinners, but always try to get a nurse to do it rather than a doctor - they are far more experienced. Having said that, the worst jab was given to me by a big black female nurse at the US Embassy when I applied for a visa. She must have been doing dozens every day, but perhaps she didn't like me! :eek:

Maurice :cool:
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Hi Maurice, yes there has been a definite improvement with needles. The needles for the Covid injections have to go in at least a centimetre and I didn't feel anything.

Regarding gas training I notice I mentioned it in the National Service thread ... :grinning:
oldMohawk said:
There was one occasion when our flight was ordered to sing during our 'gas training' when we had to go into a room full of tear gas wearing gas masks. We were soon ordered to remove the masks and to stop us holding our breath and had to run round singing a song called 'Happy Wanderer' ... a scouts song I think.

Just had a thought ... if I ever start to forget about my National Service I just have to read through this thread ! :)
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Phil
 
TB...The vaccine is administered by intramuscular injection in the anterolateral aspect of the thigh (infants and children aged <2 years) or in the deltoid muscle (older children and adults)
the same goes for
all diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccines (DT, DTaP, Td, and Tdap) by the intramuscular route. The preferred injection site in infants and young children is the vastus lateralis muscle of the thigh. The preferred injection site in older children and adults is the deltoid muscle in the upper arm.
 
Same here. Janice, in 1962. As my wife had had it as an infant, I had to have it before the first of our children was born and each of our four children had it shortly after birth.

Maurice :cool:
 
Morturn said:
My recollection was that girls were injected in the leg for TB
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Yes, I was.
I'm sure you are right about arm for boys and leg for girls. I think the idea was that girls would prefer the mark not to show but, as I mentioned in an earlier post about vaccines, the mini skirt fashion came in shortly afterwards and you could see the mark then anyway :laughing:
 
My TB jab was in my leg, I had to go to Margaret Street but I can't remember why. I have round scar. Mom had a large smallpox scar on her arm, it seemed quite ragged not rounded.
I do remember fainting at the the doctor's, I fell and broke one of the elements of the little gas fire, Mom had to replace it and wasn't very pleased!!
rosie,
 
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