We ve said it many times in the past, and we ll say it again vaccines are a true public health miracle, banishing diseases from diphtheria to polio, which have killed hundreds of thousands in global epidemics.
vaccines
Medical wrap for Friday, March 14: Dr. Josh Bloom's latest piece on Science 2.0 regarding yet another harmless chemical scare, Dr. Gilbert Ross testifies in Philadelphia against e-cig regulation, measles outbreak in NY, and you're in luck- we're sharing the world's best Key Lime Pie recipe in honor of Pi Day.
Last week, the New York City Department of Health announced that it is investigating an outbreak of measles in northern Manhattan and the Bronx. By March 7, the NYC DOH had identified 16 cases seven adults and nine pediatric cases.
According to Dr. Mark Grabowsky, of the Office of the (UN) Secretary General s Special Envoy, referring to the dramatic reduction in contagious diseases over the past century, The elimination of the diseases from the Americas is a triumph of public health. And how do we explain that triumph? It s
One of the most common childhood illnesses, rotavirus, which infects almost 100 percent of children at one time or another, has been badly beaten down, thanks to the work of a host of researchers from the public and private sectors (including Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the ACSH board of directors, and chief of the division of infectious diseases and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children s Hospital of Philadelphia), as well as three pharmaceutical companies: Wyeth, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.
The anti-vaccine crowd perhaps a little discouraged after the complete and thorough debunking of any link between vaccination and autism will probably scream bloody murder. Except, (as always) it will be about nothing. Or in this case, almost nothing.
A beneficial trend in vaccine exemptions seems to be spreading, even to regions and states with entrenched anti-vaccine fears. Who knows if this continues, recurrent epidemics of preventable illnesses may become a thing of the past.
Several societies concerned with countering the spread of infectious diseases issued a call for mandatory immunization of all healthcare workers. They outlined their reasons, but those are quite obvious and this mandate is long overdue, as we here at ACSH have been saying for years.
Since ACSH was founded in 1978, we have been proponents of the view that vaccines are arguably the greatest achievement in public health,
A new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health provides some sobering statistics about the use of the vaccines that can prevent cancers caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). Although primarily developed to prevent HPV infection (and thus, cervical cancer) in women, its use has been expanded to boys, since the vaccine also protects against anal and oropharyngeal cancers (the tongue, tonsils,soft palate, and pharynx a part of the throat).
As Oliver Hardy often said to Stan Laurel, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!
We wonder if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is thinking the same about the FDA. Because in order to protect students at Princeton University from a particular strain of bacterial meningitis, the CDC had to get special permission from the FDA to import Novartis Bexsero from Europe and Australia. Bexsero is the only vaccine that is effective against the strain (serotype B) that is causing trouble at Princeton. Why was this necessary? Because the FDA has not approved the vaccine in the U.S.
Although the norovirus (aka stomach flu) is rarely fatal you might wish that it was fatal when you have it. But help is on the way.