Re: Rabies

["Duncan Fletcher" <dfletche@gte.net>]

Time to get my mind off physics. You are entirely correct about long term
effects. There aren't a whole lot of products that we have good studies of
long term effects, particuarly if those effects are somewhat common even
without the additional causitive effects of whatever agent concerns you.
Even uncommon conditions are difficult to pin down. But one has to consider
not only the effects on the horse, but the effects on anyone that may handle
your horse.  The folks killed by lightening made a choice to play golf in
bad weather. The neigbors kid was just petting your horse and the vet was
just trying to make a living.

One of the reasons drugs are withdrawn is because of FDA tracking of
reactions. I find it fascinating that there are folks that are part of
another industry making money from alternatives (and not all alternatives
are bad) that are not tracked at all and trashing conventional because a
system (imperfect) is in place to track finds problems. This is not aimed at
you Truman - I don't believe this is a source of income to you. But the
conventional drug industry is not the only industy out there.

Rabies vaccines have reduced the domestic animal rabies incidence. As to
whether the cycle should be 3 years (which it is in Washington - and I think
the 3 year vaccine may be different than the 1 year vaccine) or 1 year or
some other number is an honest debate. But it also gets tangled with product
liability. If you want somewhat higher risk for longer timeframes, you also
have to eliminate the financial risks to the vaccine manufacturers from
lawsuits when in a particular animal the vaccine is not effective for that
time frame. (Not likely to be common, but if a large number of people have
to go through treatment and couple slip through the cracks and die, what is
the liability for a product that wholesales for a couple of bucks.)  Then
another financial interest gets involved.

No good answers.

Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Truman Prevatt <truman.prevatt@netsrq.com>

> This post is not directed at any one person in particular.  It is a
> general statement as to how I see this issue.
>
> I do not know the probability of acute reaction to a vaccine, however a
> friends mine almost died from a reaction to a rabies vaccine. Does anybody
> know the probability of an acute and more importantly does anybody the
> probability of long term detrimental  effects of repeated vaccinations?
> Most likely not and that is I think the issue.  My vet (as well as others)
> tell me that rabies vaccines are good for at least 3 years in dogs.  Then
> why do we vaccinate ever year?  What is the effectively of rabies vaccine
> in horses?
>
> How many drugs and vaccines have passed "FDA type testing" to be withdrawn
> several years later when long term cumulative effects had time to show
> up?  In the early days people were told that exposure low levels of
> radiation was no serious health risk - well WRONG!
>
> For my taste there are too many question unanswered to properly access the
> long term risk vs. benefit which is required to design an optimal strategy
> for vaccination against most diseases - be it in animals or humans.  I
> think the public deserves answers to its questions rather than scare
> tactics which some of the public health establishment tends to use.  Over
> the last decade in FL there were about 10 times as many horses that died
> from lightening than died from rabies and many many more died from
> encephalitis than rabies.  There were more people killed on the golf
> course by lightening last year than have died in the last 20 years of
> rabies.
>
> Are we trying to prevent a very low probability event using a treatment
> which has a greater probability of causing a negative effect in long
> term?  Can anyone answer that with any type of statistically justifiable
> confidence?
>
> Questions....questions......questions........
>
> Truman
>




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