In a new study, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that if vaccine coverage and efficacy are high in girls, a universal recommendation to vaccinate young boys is unlikely to provide comparatively good value for resources, compared with vaccinating girls only. The study was reported in the BMJ October 9..
ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2009) — A person, usually a child, dies of rabies every 20 minutes. However, only one inoculation may be all it takes for rabies vaccination, according to new research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases by researchers at the Jefferson Vaccine Center.
In an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/17), Jim Fortenberry, MD, pediatrician-in-chief at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, discusses how, “time after time, parents are bringing children with flu symptoms to the emergency” department “when it’s not an emergency.” Dr. Fortenberry points out that even though the H1N1 “flu is a new strain, at present it is acting just like a mild-to-moderate case of the flu with the same type of outcomes as seasonal influenza.” Therefore, he suggests that “parents take away that H1N1 label and name, and think of this as the flu.” COMMENT: Overkill by the medical politicians overloads the system, time after time. We saw the same behavior with swine flu in 1976 when the White House insisted everyone be vaccinated, yet evidence for severe outcome was missing.
The AP reports that researchers with the Institute of Public Health in Quebec are reporting that the end of a patient’s coughing “is probably a better sign of when a swine flu patient is no longer contagious,” noting that the CDC “has been telling people to stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others until a day after their fever breaks. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer — especially at home where the risk of spreading the germ is highest. Swine flu also appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.”
Around half of all tumors [including malignant] of the penis are linked to the most common forms of the sexually transmitted infection human papillomavirus (HPV), suggest research published ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Pathology. Comment: Perhaps males as well as females should be immunized against HPV.
New research published by Yale School of Public Health has found that more people are likely to avoid illness if vaccines are given out first to those most likely to transmit viruses, rather than to those at highest risk for complications. This research differs from current vaccination recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The Yale study appears in the August 20 issue of the journal Science online at the Science Express website, http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencexpress .
Scientists have used a new production technology to develop a vaccine for norovirus, the unpleasant package of diarrhea and vomiting that has destroyed the costly holidays of thousands of cruise ship vacationers. Norovirus is the second most common viral infection in the U.S. after the flu, “can spread like wildfire through passenger liners, schools, offices and military bases.”
ABC World News reports, “Protection against the swine flu is going to be delayed for millions of Americans. Federal officials now say that only about a third of the swine flu vaccine the country is counting on will be available by mid-October. That’s when the mass vaccination campaign is scheduled to begin.” Comment: It is not surprising that politically dominated decisions about medial subjects rarely pan out as intended. The usual rush to judgment was made without adequate scientific input, or else such input was ignored, the most likely event. At the same time we must not let ourselves be diverted from ensuring that children get all the recommended current immunizations.
Scientists in Singapore, the Netherlands and France report that they have developed a novel immunization method that will induce fast and effective protection in humans against the life-threatening malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which infects 350 to 500 million people world-wide and kills over one million people each year. [Protection against a Malaria Challenge by Sporozoite Inoculation. The New England Journal of Medicine, 361;5, July 30, 2009] Comment. While I hope this vaccine proves better than previous ones we must also wonder how the countries that use the vaccine will deal with the famine that may result from the increased population.
I note that the WHO Today is giving daily counts of H1N1 flu deaths WORLDWIDE, currently in the hundreds! However they give no data for comparison of death and disability during regular flu seasons which are in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. Neither do they compare these with the millions of deaths each year from heart disease, cancer and stroke, which are often amenable to actions by individuals.
