What Is the Invisible vaccine Threat?

Over the past few years, an increasing number of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children -- for religious reasons, for philosophical reasons, and for various other reasons. More and more children are now being potentially exposed to these vaccine-preventable diseases, and the consequences have been what one would have predicted. Last year, we had 189 cases of measles in this country; as of March 22, 2014, we have had about 80 cases, and thus we could have twice the number of cases this year as last year. In addition, we are seeing more cases of pertussis, more cases of mumps, and more cases of bacterial meningitis. This has been a constant discussion, a discussion in the media, and in many different forms of the media.

>VIEW FULL ARTICLE at medscape.com

Vaccine Resources for Your Practice or to Share With Your Adult Patients

For Educating Your Adult Patients

Every year tens of thousands of adults needlessly suffer, are hospitalized, and even die as a result of diseases that could be prevented by vaccines.

While adults believe immunization is important, a recent national survey showed that most adults are not aware that they need vaccines throughout their lives to protect against diseases like shingles, pertussis, and hepatitis.

Patients trust you to give them the best advice on how to protect their health. Use the resources below to educate your patients on recommended vaccines and help them make informed decisions about vaccinations.

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Vaccine Reduces Influenza Risk in Mothers and Newborns

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — When pregnant women receive the flu vaccine, their risk of developing influenza is halved, as is the risk to their newborns in the first 24 weeks of life, new research shows.

"This is the first randomized controlled study to actually confirm that vaccination is efficacious in pregnant women, and only the second randomized controlled trial to show protection of the infant," said Shabir Madhi, MD, PhD, professor of vaccinology at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

"Our data support the recent WHO recommendation in terms of prioritizing pregnant women for influenza vaccination, not just for the protection of the mother, but protection of the infant as well," he told Medscape Medical News.

Dr. Madhi presented the results here at the 16th International Congress on Infectious Diseases.

READ FULL ARTICLE why pregnant women are more at risk from medscape.com

Pneumonia Protection With PCV-13 vaccine in the Elderly

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) offers moderate protection against the most common forms of pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia in healthy elderly people, a large prospective trial shows.

"Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are effective in preventing invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumonia in children, but vaccine efficacy has not been investigated in adults older than 65," said Marc Bonten, MD, professor of molecular epidemiology of infectious disease at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

"A clear medical need exists among adults to prevent pneumococcal disease, including pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia. Whether the benefit we demonstrated in individuals translates into an overall public health benefit needs further analyses," he said.

The study results were presented here at the 16th International Congress on Infectious Diseases.

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Universal Flu Vaccination: Are We Paying Attention?

Despite recommendations for universal vaccination of all individuals older than 6 months, influenza vaccine uptake in the United States remains dismal. Although there are clear benefits of large-scale vaccination in terms of both use of healthcare resources and improved work productivity, the issue of whether the influenza vaccine may prevent cardiovascular (CV) events has been controversial.

However, a new meta-analysis finds that the influenza vaccine may reduce the risk for CV events by more than one third among adults, and even more among adults at high risk for CV disease (CVD).^[1] These findings could have important implications for public health policy, as well as the way in which physicians counsel individual patients regarding the use of the influenza vaccine.

READ FULL ARTICLE from www.medscape.com

Celebrity's Twitter Flooded with Criticisms About Her Stance Against Vaccines for Children

After news broke on Friday about reality television star Kristin Cavallari opting to not vaccinate her children because of her concerns regarding autism, the Twitterverse went bonkers on Jenny McCarthy, a well-known outspoken figure against vaccinations.

McCarthy's 11-year-old son Evan was diagnosed with autism in 2007 and ever since, she has been outspoken about the subject of vaccinations. In 2008 while interviewing with Larry King, McCarthy noted that there has been an increase in the number of vaccinations along with an increase in cases of autism.

When McCarthy joined The View on ABC, many were concerned that she would condemn vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella. But instead she has simply mentioned her concern about the link between vaccinations and autism. In recent years (especially in the past few months) there have been various outbreaks of measles and mumps in different parts of the United States--mostly due to parents not vaccinating their children.

Last month in San Francisco, there were 15 documented cases of measles when a college student rode the transit system after visiting the Philippines without getting vaccinated. He reportedly contracted measles and spread it to some nearby passengers. Fordham University in the Bronx reported a small mumps outbreak last month as well. And a couple of weeks ago there were 16 measles cases reported in upper Manhattan, prompting city officials to urge residents to get their vaccinations.

via Celebrity's Twitter Flooded with Criticisms About Her Stance Against Vaccines for Children.