By Anne-Gerard Flynn There is a 40 percent chance flu season could peak this month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s FluSight Forecasting initiative. The CDC’s flu surveillance report for the week ending Nov. 30 shows the percentage of visits to outpatient providers for influenza-like illnesses has been at or above the national baseline for four weeks. […]
By Stephen Huba A whooping cough outbreak in Indiana County prompted the state Department of Health to host a walk-in vaccination clinic. The clinic will be open from 2-6 p.m. Thursday at the Indiana County State Health Center, 75 N. Main St., Indiana. It is in response to an ongoing outbreak in which 45 confirmed […]
NBC News (11/21) reports, “Doctors have known that mothers pass on measles immunity to their babies…leading to the belief that infants are protected against the disease for most of their first year of life.” Meanwhile, a study of blood samples from 200 babies “found insufficient levels” of measles antibodies “in 20 percent of newborns, 92 […]
(HealthDay News) — The safety of the 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine (9vHPV) has been confirmed, according to two studies published online Nov. 18 in Pediatrics. Tom T. Shimabukuro, M.D., M.P.H., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues searched the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for reports of adverse […]
Study finds links between disease outbreaks, vaccination laws By Brian P. Dunleavy When it comes to vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and mumps, outbreaks lead to political action — often to widen vaccine exemptions, according to an analysis published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. In reviewing trends in vaccine-preventable diseases reported to the U.S. Centers […]
By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter FRIDAY, Nov. 15, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Whether you have caught the flu yet this season might depend on where you live. Flu levels are already climbing throughout the South, particularly in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, and Puerto Rico, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. […]
Only 19 percent of children were up to date on immunizations by IDSA accelerated schedule. (HealthDay News) — Many pediatric liver transplant recipients are undervaccinated, according to a research letter published in the Nov. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Amy G. Feldman, M.D., from the University of Colorado Denver, and colleagues […]
By Jacqueline Stenson Skipping the measles vaccine may put children at risk in more ways than one, new research suggests. Not only could kids contract measles and suffer its direct effects, they also may sustain measles-induced damage to their immune systems, causing them to experience “immune amnesia” and making them susceptible to other infections they previously were […]
The percentage of children starting kindergarten whose parents claim that vaccination conflicts with their religious beliefs has ticked up in recent years, even while the portion of Americans who profess to be part of an organized religion has fallen. A new study suggests some of the increase may be related to a tightening of school-entry […]
In a “historic achievement for humanity”, two of three wild poliovirus strains have been eliminated worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday, following the conclusion by a group of experts that WPV3, type three of the disease, has been eradicated completely. The deadly viral disease is “very close” to disappearing altogether, with the number of […]