Vaccinations typhus

After a pause, Duke nodded "You want to know what was so special about the 50 additional doses of vaccine upon which the scientists were so willing to rely Nothing at all — unless it was intended to use these 50 doses on persons who were sure to get typhus."... 

The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth directors —who headed the firm of Degesch which shipped all the Zyclon B to Auschwitz and the institutes which shipped the typhus vaccines and drugs — didn t know anything either. 

Typhus vaccines Killed epidemic Rickettsia prowazekii Active immunization against louse-borne t q)hus... 

All of the vaccine preparations discussed thus far are bacterial or viral-based. Typhus vaccine, on the other hand, targets a parasitic disease. Typhus (spotted fever) refers to a group of infections caused by Rickettsia (small, non-motile parasites). The disease is characterized by severe rash and headache, high fever and delirium. The most common form is that of epidemic typhus ( classical or louse-borne typhus). This is associated particularly with crowded, unsanitary conditions. 

Without appropriate antibiotic treatment, fatality rates can approach 100%. The causative agent of epidemic typhus is Rickettsia prowazekii. Typhus vaccine consists of a sterile aqueous suspension of killed R. prowazekii which has been propagated in either yolk sacs of embryonated eggs, rodent lungs or the peritoneal cavity of gerbils. 

Other vaccines available are those for influenza(flu), pneumonia (lifetime immunity), rabies, cholera, smallpox, typhus, typhoid, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Some vaccines can cause adverse effects especially to small children or the elderly. Flu vaccine has been implicated in the onset of a condition known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a polyneuritis which can lead to anything from mild pain and weakness in the extremities to paralysis. These symptoms can last from a few weeks to a few months. 

Progress in immunological science has been driven by the need to understand and exploit the generation of immune states exemplified now by the use of modern vaccines. From almost the first recorded observations, it was recognized that persons who had contracted and recovered from certain infectious diseases were not susceptible (i.e. were immune) to the effects of the same disease when re-exposed to the infection. Thucydides, over 2500 years ago, described in detail an epidemic in Athens (which could have been typhus or plague) and noted that sufferers were touched by the pitying... 

Bacterial vaccines of restricted availability include anthrax, botulism, plague, Q fever, typhus and tularaemia vaccines. 

Vaccination against any of the typhus fevers is not required by any country as a condition for entry. Although experimental vaccines have been developed for the typhus fevers, no commercially licensed vaccines are produced presently in the United States. 

Although an early typhus vaccine was used in World War II for European troops and American prisoners of war in Germany, its real efficacy has always been in doubt. By far the greatest factor in the reduction of typhus was the... 

Following war s end, a significant problem was encountered when it came time for the Allies to process thousands of German prisoners of war, many of whom were infected or were vulnerable to infection by typhus. Few German soldiers in that theater had been vaccinated for typhus, and many were ridden with Uce. According to the official US military history of medicine in World War II ... 

Smallpox, Variolation, and the First Vaccines Jenner s Vaccinia Typhus and DDT... 

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