California law stopping parents from citing religious or philosophical beliefs to opt out of vaccinating their children has improved rates of shots, a study has revealed. In 2016, a ban on nonmedical exemptions from school entry requirements came into effect. To uncover what effect this had, a team of researchers examined county-level data on measles, […]
(Reuters Health) – Only a quarter of childcare centers in the United States require children in their care to get a flu shot, and even fewer require childcare workers to be vaccinated, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. Young children are at increased risk of serious complications such as hospitalization and even death from seasonal influenza, […]
(CNN)At least 1,300 people have died from the flu so far this season, according to a preliminary estimate released Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been at least 2.6 million flu illnesses and 23,000 flu-related hospitalizations, according to the analysis. So far this season, the CDC has received reports […]
(Reuters Health) – Even with measles outbreaks common in many parts of the world, doctors and parents are often not opting to have children vaccinated before international travel, a new study suggests. Nearly 60% of children who could have benefited from the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination did not get it during pre-travel doctor’s […]
(Reuters Health) – The first field trial of a new typhoid vaccine that can be used in young children provides protection for 81.6% of recipients, opening the door to better control of a disease that affects 11 million people each year and kills roughly 117,000. The test in Nepal “provides the first evidence of the […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Measles infected nearly 10 million people in 2018 and killed 140,000, mostly children, as devastating outbreaks of the viral disease hit every region of the world, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. WHO said most of last year’s measles deaths were in children under five years old who had not been […]
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 […]