Sharp Drop Seen in Deaths From Ills Fought by Vaccine

[Guest guest]

So why are 20% of American children on disability insurance as per recent report

I read in BBC a few months ago....

Sharp Drop Seen in Deaths From Ills Fought by Vaccine

It's just simply nauseating....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/health/14vaccine.html?ref=us

Death rates for 13 diseases that can be prevented by childhood vaccinations

are at all-time lows in the United States, according to a study released

yesterday.

The study, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and

published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first time

that the agency has searched historical records going back to 1900 to compile

estimates of cases, hospitalizations and deaths for all the diseases children

are routinely vaccinated against.

In nine of the diseases, rates of death or hospitalization declined more than

90 percent since vaccines against them were approved, and in the cases of

smallpox, diphtheria and polio, by 100 percent.

In only four diseases - hepatitis A and B, invasive pneumococcal diseases and

varicella (the cause of chickenpox and shingles) - did deaths and

hospitalizations fall less than 90 percent. Those vaccines are all relatively

new - the one for chickenpox, for example, was adopted nationally only in 1995.

Also, some diseases like hepatitis typically strike adults, who are less likely

to be immunized.

The results " are a testament to the fact that vaccines can drive diseases down

to near nil, " said Dr. A. Poland, chief of the vaccine research group at

the Mayo Clinic.

And Dr. W. Sears, an Orange County, Calif., pediatrician who writes

popular medicine books for parents, including a new one on vaccines, said the

study showed " one of the very positive aspects of vaccination. "

Public health officials are involved in a continuing struggle with antivaccine

activists who contend that children's shots trigger autism, seizures or other

serious side effects, and that private pediatricians often cannot make time to

answer all the questions worried parents have, Dr. Sears said.

A spokesman for the disease control agency, Curtis , said the study was

not done to counter groups that oppose vaccines, " but it does show conclusively

the value of vaccines. "

It was in 1796 when Dr. Jenner first vaccinated a boy against smallpox

by pricking his arms with pus taken from the sores of a milkmaid with cowpox, a

closely related but mild disease. Vaccines against whooping cough were

introduced in 1914, against diphtheria in 1928, against tetanus in 1933, and so

on, up to the latest introduction, seven years ago, of the pneumococcal vaccine.

The centers' study estimates the peak years for deaths from each disease: more

than 3,000 deaths from polio in 1952, for example, and more than 7,500 from

whooping cough in 1934.

But as fewer parents see children killed, scarred or brain-damaged by diseases

that were once common, " there's been a shift in who's not getting vaccinated, "

said Dr. A. Offit, chief of diseases at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia

and a vaccine expert.

Until the 1990s, Dr. Offit said, incomplete vaccination was most common among

poor children with no health insurance. But the Vaccines for Children Program,

created in 1994 by the Clinton administration, helped end that. It provides

vaccines free to any eligible child, which includes 45 percent of American

children, Mr. said.

Now, Dr. Offit said, it is more common for children from wealthy or

middle-class families to lack some or all shots, presumably because their

parents have read about side effects or visited one of the many antivaccine Web

sites.

Most children are immunized as part of routine infant care or before they

enter day care or school, but the number of states that allow religious or

" philosophical " exemptions has increased.

Public health officials worry that those children are vulnerable to diseases

that still kill children in poor countries and occasionally arrive from abroad.

The study showed total or near-total declines in cases of diphtheria, measles,

polio, rubella, smallpox and invasive Hib disease, a type of pneumonia for which

children are now normally vaccinated at as early as 2 months.

In the 1930s in the United States, there were about 30,000 cases of diphtheria

annually, in which a grayish membrane clogs the airways, killing about 10

percent of those infected. The disease virtually never appears in the West now,

but in the 1980s, when vaccination stopped in the former Soviet Union in the

chaos of its breakup, there were 200,000 cases and 5,000 deaths, by Red Cross

estimates.

In the United States, rumors of a link to autism and inflammatory bowel

disease are most commonly attached to the measles vaccine, making it one that

some parents avoid.

Refusal is much more common in Britain, and in August the national Health

Protection Agency warned that Britain was having its worst measles outbreak in

20 years, with 480 confirmed cases and one death.

[Guest guest]

>

> It's just simply nauseating....

*** I concur. Because our healthy children are vulnerable - pfft, and

the diseases are just a plane ride away - bwa ha ha ha. I'll need to

set some time aside to pick the study apart, which I am sure will be

easily done - then I'll send it to the times and gladly post it here

there and everywhere.

Of course, when I see Offit's name, I have difficulty getting my eyes

to roll back correctly in my head. I'd like to cane that man.

M.

[Guest guest]

Sharp Drop Seen in Deaths From Ills Fought by Vaccine

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Death rates for 13 diseases that can be prevented by childhood

vaccinations are at all-time lows in the United States, according to a

study released yesterday.

The study, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in

Atlanta, and published in The Journal of the American Medical

Association, is the first time that the agency has searched historical

records going back to 1900 to compile estimates of cases,

hospitalizations and deaths for all the diseases children are

routinely vaccinated against.

In nine of the diseases, rates of death or hospitalization declined

more than 90 percent since vaccines against them were approved, and in

the cases of smallpox, diphtheria and polio, by 100 percent.

In only four diseases — hepatitis A and B, invasive pneumococcal

diseases and varicella (the cause of chickenpox and shingles) — did

deaths and hospitalizations fall less than 90 percent. Those vaccines

are all relatively new — the one for chickenpox, for example, was

adopted nationally only in 1995. Also, some diseases like hepatitis

typically strike adults, who are less likely to be immunized.

The results " are a testament to the fact that vaccines can drive

diseases down to near nil, " said Dr. A. Poland, chief of the

vaccine research group at the Mayo Clinic.

And Dr. W. Sears, an Orange County, Calif., pediatrician who

writes popular medicine books for parents, including a new one on

vaccines, said the study showed " one of the very positive aspects of

vaccination. "

Public health officials are involved in a continuing struggle with

antivaccine activists who contend that children's shots trigger

autism, seizures or other serious side effects, and that private

pediatricians often cannot make time to answer all the questions

worried parents have, Dr. Sears said.

A spokesman for the disease control agency, Curtis , said the

study was not done to counter groups that oppose vaccines, " but it

does show conclusively the value of vaccines. "

It was in 1796 when Dr. Jenner first vaccinated a boy against

smallpox by pricking his arms with pus taken from the sores of a

milkmaid with cowpox, a closely related but mild disease. Vaccines

against whooping cough were introduced in 1914, against diphtheria in

1928, against tetanus in 1933, and so on, up to the latest

introduction, seven years ago, of the pneumococcal vaccine.

The centers' study estimates the peak years for deaths from each

disease: more than 3,000 deaths from polio in 1952, for example, and

more than 7,500 from whooping cough in 1934.

But as fewer parents see children killed, scarred or brain-damaged by

diseases that were once common, " there's been a shift in who's not

getting vaccinated, " said Dr. A. Offit, chief of diseases at

Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and a vaccine expert.

Until the 1990s, Dr. Offit said, incomplete vaccination was most

common among poor children with no health insurance. But the Vaccines

for Children Program, created in 1994 by the Clinton administration,

helped end that. It provides vaccines free to any eligible child,

which includes 45 percent of American children, Mr. said.

Now, Dr. Offit said, it is more common for children from wealthy or

middle-class families to lack some or all shots, presumably because

their parents have read about side effects or visited one of the many

antivaccine Web sites.

Most children are immunized as part of routine infant care or before

they enter day care or school, but the number of states that allow

religious or " philosophical " exemptions has increased.

Public health officials worry that those children are vulnerable to

diseases that still kill children in poor countries and occasionally

arrive from abroad.

The study showed total or near-total declines in cases of diphtheria,

measles, polio, rubella, smallpox and invasive Hib disease, a type of

pneumonia for which children are now normally vaccinated at as early

as 2 months.

In the 1930s in the United States, there were about 30,000 cases of

diphtheria annually, in which a grayish membrane clogs the airways,

killing about 10 percent of those infected. The disease virtually

never appears in the West now, but in the 1980s, when vaccination

stopped in the former Soviet Union in the chaos of its breakup, there

were 200,000 cases and 5,000 deaths, by Red Cross estimates.

In the United States, rumors of a link to autism and inflammatory

bowel disease are most commonly attached to the measles vaccine,

making it one that some parents avoid.

Refusal is much more common in Britain, and in August the national

Health Protection Agency warned that Britain was having its worst

measles outbreak in 20 years, with 480 confirmed cases and one death.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/health/14vaccine.html