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Current News
News you need to know about vaccines August is back-to-school month for most children. August is also National Immunization Month. And, in order for your children to become highly healthy you must be well-informed about the facts about immunizations. It seems that almost every month newspaper articles and television programs depict the horrors of vaccines. The villains of these stories are greedy vaccine manufacturers, disinterested doctors, and burdensome regulatory agencies. The focus of most of these stories is that children are hurt unnecessarily by vaccines—and the tone is usually one of intrigue and cover-up—of controversy and conspiracy. Perhaps the most dangerous part of these stories (apart from the fact that they may cause many children to miss the potentially life-saving vaccines they need) is that the explanations are presented in a manner that seem believable. I recommend the mom's of my patients be aware of the most commonly aired stories about vaccines and learn to separate fact from myth. In the United States, vaccines have dramatically reduced diseases such as whooping cough, mumps, polio, smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, and chicken pox. Because we have so little experience with these diseases today, it is easy to forget how serious theses illnesses can be. In our well traveled and well populated world vaccines are necessary to your child's health. Parents who refuse to vaccinate, wrongly think that their children are probably safe without the vaccine, and that their refusal does not affect other children. It is true that these diseases currently occur in small numbers, and chances are low that any child—vaccinated or not—will get the disease. However, as increasing numbers of parents choose not to vaccinate, everything changes. When vaccination levels fall below 90 percent or so in any given region, parents who do not vaccinate their children put their children and other unvaccinated children at higher risk for illness. So what vaccines does your child need? The list changes as our nations scientists and physicians analyze trends and discover new preventions. Take a look at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Immunization recommendations for 2009 to find out. |
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