OK, I'm not with PETA but I learned yesterday that the Tetanus and Diphtheria vaccines are made using horses as hosts for antibody harvest.
Is this true? Horses are used for hormone replacement therapy, that's old news, but is is true that horses are used to produce these popular vaccines?
If so, how strange that after harvesting them from horses' blood we use them to vaccinate our pet horses and ourselves.
Why hasn't anyone told me this? Why did I have to learn it from watching trash like Grey's Anatomy?
(I'm watching it finally cuz 1. Seattle and 2. Issaquah and 3. Medical stuff)
Are horses standing around having their blood taken so we don't die of lockjaw?
7 comments:
In the mid-1950s my brother nearly died when he was given a horse-serum tetanus shot for a puncture wound to his foot. Many people had very violent reactions to it, but at the time that was all that was available. By the time he went into the Army in the early 1970s they had developed a tetanus shot that was not based on horse-serum. He was then able to take tetanus shots when needed without being afraid of dying from the reaction. I haven't heard any mention of horse-serum tetanus shots for many years, until your post. Since it can be synthetically produced, and much safer for the people needing it, I too wonder if they are still making it the old-fashioned way?
From what I remember from BioScience Engineering classes, "live" serums obtained from horses/cows/chicken eggs are mainly used medicinally to treat people who actually contracted Tetanus or Diptheria, not to produce vaccins. But something worth investigating if you are so inclined!
This was no fun to research... Scary stuff...
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/dtap-tdap-td/hcp/about-vaccine.html
This is designed to be read by civilians, much easier to understand:
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/dtap-tdap-td/public/index.html
Ahhhh, here we go:
"Does tetanus toxoid contain horse serum?
Tetanus toxoid has never contained horse serum or protein. Equine tetanus antitoxin (horse derived) was the only product available for the prevention of tetanus prior to the development of tetanus toxoid in the 1940s. Equine antitoxin was also used for passive post-exposure prophylaxis of tetanus (e.g., after a tetanus-prone wound) until the development of human tetanus immune globulin in the late 1950s. Equine tetanus antitoxin has not been available in the U.S. for at least 40 years"
https://www.immunize.org/askexperts/experts_per.asp
The Immunization Action Coalition (source) is a non-profit web-based vaccine resource supported by the CDC.
So, the answer is "not since the 1940's."
Aarene, thanks. That it was originally taken from horses is interesting, I wonder if it was used to immunize horses at that time.
I recently read that tetanus shots do not need to be repeated every 10 years, that if you've ever had a tetanus shot, there's no chance of becoming ill. Fake news?
My doctor did my most recent Hep B test and looked at me and said, in ENGLISH, "Never again." I'm supposedly set for life against Hep B, due to the series I had in the 90s and recently.
Germany is not as far as America with the Corona shot, you can only get if if you're over 80 or in health care. We're hoping teachers come next. I need to be in America soon.
In the old days, they created equine tetanus antitoxin by dosing horses with tiny increments of the tetanus bacteria, and gradually increasing the dosage. It was used to treat horses as well as humans.
The need for tetanus inoculation greatly increased in WWI because of the (dirty) airborne shrapnel that would get imbedded into soldiers' wounds. It was even more necessary by WWII, which is when they came up with the tetanus toxoid injection.
The tetanus injection is considered good for 10 years, after which a booster is recommended--also, if you can't remember when you got your last tetanus shot, it's time for another! :-)
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tetanus/expert-answers/tetanus-shots/faq-20058209
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