5.7
(Flicker Image, by Sanofi Pasteur) We live in an epidemiological bubble and are for the most part blissfully unaware of it. Diseases that were routine hazards of childhood for many Americans living today now seem like ancient history. And while every mother could once identify measles in a heartbeat, now even the best hospitals have to call in their eldest staff members to ask:
4.16
(Flicker Image, by thms.nl's) Of almost 200 parents who took the survey, almost all said they had groups of people offering advice on vaccination, but those who chose not to fully vaccinate their children were more likely to have larger social groups and to turn to other sources, such as books, pamphlets and the Internet, for guidance. The take-home message from this is that the social networks for the majority of parents are extremely important in affecting vaccination decisions, said Emily Brunson, the study's author from Texas State University in San Marcos.
4.7
(Flicker Image, by Jon Gosier) Twitter posts with anti-vaccine sentiments are "contagious," while posts with a positive take on vaccines are not, a new study suggests. The study analyzed more than 300,000 tweets that expressed an opinion about the H1N1 flu vaccine in 2009. Twitter users who saw anti-vaccine posts in their Twitter feed tended to tweet anti-vaccine sentiments themselves, the results show. However, those who saw positive vaccine sentiments didn't tweet positive sentiments themselves.
4.3
(Flicker Image, by Sanofi Pasteur) Tuesday, April 2 Dr. Bernice L. Hausman was interviewed by WVTF about why parents might choose to ignore medical advice when it comes to vaccines.
10.6
(Flicker Image, by Sanofi Pasteur) Sep 13, 2012 (CIDRAP News) A detailed look at California children during the state's large pertussis outbreak in 2010 revealed that protection from the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine wanes 5 years after kids receive their last dose, which could be fueling outbreaks. The findings come on the heels of a warning earlier this summer from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency, along with state health department partners, found an unusual illness spike in Washington state 13- and 14-year-olds, which also raised the possibility of waning pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine protection. The United States is headed toward its worst pertussis year in decades, CDC officials said in July, and two states Washington and Colorado have declared epidemics. The new study on pertussis in California children, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), is the first to focus on the cohort of children who have received only the DTaP since birth. In the late 1990s the United States transitioned from a whole-cell pertussis vaccine to an acellular version, due to a fairly high rate of minor side effects with the older vaccine.
10.5
(Flicker Image, by Navy Medicine) BAD news is always interesting, especially when it starts small and threatens to grow large, like the little cloud on the distant horizon, no bigger than a mans hand, that is destined to rise as a thunderhead (1 Kings 18:44). That is why we read so avidly about the recent outbreaks of Ebola virus disease among villages in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and about West Nile fever in the area around Dallas (where 15 have died of it since July). And that is why, early this month, heads turned toward Yosemite National Park after the announcement of a third death from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome among recent visitors there. Humans die in large numbers every day, every hour, from heart failure and automobile crashes and the dreary effects of poverty; but strange new infectious diseases, even when the death tolls are low, call up a more urgent sort of attention.
10.2
(Flicker Image, by Johann Dreo) Each year, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) publishes immunization schedules for persons aged 0 through 18 years. These schedules summarize recommendations for currently licensed vaccines for children aged 0 through 6 years and 7 through 18 years and include recommendations in effect as of December 23, 2011. Vaccination providers are being advised to use all three schedules (Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3) and their respective footnotes together and not separately. A parent-friendly schedule for children and adolescents is available online at http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/child-schedule.htm#printable. Changes to the previous schedules include the following:
10.1
(Flicker Image, by Mercy Health) Each year, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) reviews the recommended adult immunization schedule to ensure that the schedule reflects current recommendations for licensed vaccines. In October 2011, ACIP approved the adult immunization schedule for 2012, which includes several changes from 2011. A footnote directing readers to links for the full ACIP vaccine recommendations and where to find additional information on specific vaccine recommendations for travelers is now included. In addition, a Table summarizing precautions and contraindications was added. This table is based on the corresponding table in the 12th edition of Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and is included to provide ready access to key safety information for adult vaccine providers (1).
1.21
(Flicker Image) (NaturalNews) Remember when it was considered crazy talk to suggest that mainstream medicine viewed humanity as being born lacking in pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, as if these synthetic inputs are necessary miracle nutrients for proper human development? Well, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently showed that they adhere to this lunatic philosophy, having released a study that recommends women withhold breastfeeding their children in order to boost the "effectiveness" of the rotavirus vaccine.