How Could Digital Tools Help Fight Against Anti-Vaccination?
Anti-vaccination movements lure increasingly more people into skipping potentially life-saving immunization against infectious diseases, such as measles, mumps, or rubella, highly impairing herd immunity for entire communities. Social media platforms could restrict the reach of anti-vax messages, groups, and activities, with algorithms recommending tailor-made content and health apps providing information about vaccinations. Here’s our collection of the most recent steps and digital tools supporting the fight against anti-vaccination and its believers.
300 percent increase in measles globally
In a widely shared soc...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 8, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Empowered Patients Future of Medicine anti-vaccination anti-vax anti-vaxxer digital disease disease outbreak facebook figth Health Healthcare infection Innovation measles movement social media technology Source Type: blogs
Post #45 How to be Optimally Measles Immunized
Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. It spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes – the kicker is this can happen 2 hours AFTER said person has left the room. Measles starts with a fever; soon after, it causes a cough, runny nose, and red eyes. Then a rash of tiny, red spots breaks out which starts at the head and spreads to the rest of the body.It is important to recognize that fever and rash are extremely common in children and the vast majority of fever/rash cases will not be Measles.Unless you are reading about local cases of Measles in the news – it is highly impro...
Source: A Pediatrician's Blog - April 30, 2019 Category: Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
An advocate for vaccines
by Gertrud U. Rey In 1998, a British doctor named Andrew Wakefield published a paper in the British journal The Lancet. In this paper, Wakefield implied that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine may cause developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The paper received wide publicity, and subsequently, MMR vaccination rates began […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - April 11, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information autism measles MMR mumps peter hotez rubella vaccines viral virus viruses Source Type: blogs
4 things everyone needs to know about measles
We are in the midst of a measles outbreak here in the US, with cases being reported in New York City, New York state, and Washington state. In 2018, preliminary numbers indicate that there were 372 cases of measles — more than triple the 120 cases in all of 2017 — and already 79 cases in the first month of 2019 alone. Here are four things that everyone needs to know about measles.
Measles is highly contagious
This is a point that can’t be stressed enough. A full 90% of unvaccinated people exposed to the virus will catch it. And if you think that just staying away from sick people will do the trick, think again. Not o...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 5, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Infectious diseases Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs
The Far Right Goes Anti-Vax
A phenomenon which has always puzzled me is popular resistance to vaccination. It goes back to the very beginning, vaccination against smallpox, which was a terrible scourge that killed 30% of its victims and left the rest disfigured. When Edward Jenner proved in 1796 that inoculation with cowpox, which caused only mild disease, conferred immunity to smallpox, the world was given a priceless gift.Yet popular movements arose almost immediately to oppose vaccination, both in England and the U.S. Eventually smallpox vaccination became widely accepted, and smallpox was eradicated from the earth. Later, the terror of the polio ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 21, 2018 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The Migrant Caravan, Central America, and Vaccination Rates
Many commentators have recentlywritten andsaid that members of the migrant caravan and Central American immigrants in general are diseased. Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Ward claimed that the migrants are “coming in with diseases such as smallpox,” a disease that the World Health Organization (WHO) certified as beingeradicated in 1980. One hopes Mr. Ward was more careful in enforcing American immigration law than in spreading rumors that migrants are carrying one of the deadliest diseases in human history nearly 40 years after it was eradicated from the human population. But even on oth...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 1, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
Vaccine opponents think they know more than medical experts. Why is that?
One of the most contentious areas of health policy over the past two decades has been the safety of vaccination. Vaccines prevent the outbreak of diseases that used to be widespread, like polio, and scientific consensus strongly supports their safety. Yet many Americans refuse or delay the vaccination of their children out of fear that it could lead to autism, even though scientific consensus refutes this claim.
Anti-vaccine attitudes have been fueled in large part by growing rates of autism diagnoses as well as a now debunked study in The Lancet that linked autism and the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine – pushing ma...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 25, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/matthew-motta-steven-sylvester-timothy-callaghan" rel="tag" > Matthew Motta, PhD, Steven Sylvester, PhD, and Timothy Callaghan, PhD < /a > Tags: Conditions Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
Tropical Travel Trouble 010 Fever, Arthralgia and Rash
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
aka Tropical Travel Trouble 010
Peer Reviewer: Dr Jennifer Ho, ID physician QLD, Australia
You are an ED doc working in Perth over schoolies week. An 18 yo man comes into ED complaining of fever, rash a “cracking headache” and body aches. He has just hopped off the plane from Bali where he spent the last 2 weeks partying, boozing and running amok. He got bitten by “loads” of mosquitoes because he forgot to take insect repellent.
On examination he looks miserable,...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 16, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Amanda McConnell Tags: Clinical Cases Tropical Medicine arthralgia dengue fever rash Source Type: blogs
Tropical Travel Trouble 009 Humongous HIV Extravaganza
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
aka Tropical Travel Trouble 009
The diagnosis of HIV is no longer fatal and the term AIDS is becoming less frequent. In many countries, people with HIV are living longer than those with diabetes. This post will hopefully teach the basics of a complex disease and demystify some of the potential diseases you need to consider in those who are severely immunosuppressed. While trying to be comprehensive this post can not be exhaustive (as you can imagine any patient with a low ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 7, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Amanda McConnell Tags: Clinical Cases Tropical Medicine AIDS art cryptococcoma cryptococcus HIV HIV1 HIV2 PEP PrEP TB toxoplasma tuberculoma Source Type: blogs
Has the anti-vaccine movement affected vaccination rates?
Vaccines have been hailed by virtually all medical experts, as well as medical historians, as the among the greatest triumphs of public health to occur in the past two centuries. Yet since Jenner first proposed vaccination for smallpox using the vaccinia, or cowpox, virus there have been both skeptics of its effectiveness and people who thought it was dangerous. That is, they had the risk/benefit ratio of vaccination exactly backwards, believing risk high and benefit low. They also often ridiculed the entire procedure, even from the beginning, as this 18th-century cartoon shows; Jenner is the fat gent kneeling by the cow.
...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 12, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/christopher-johnson" rel="tag" > Christopher Johnson, MD < /a > Tags: Conditions Pediatrics Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
3 ways to help get more children immunized
Follow me on Twitter @drClaire
There is much to celebrate during National Infant Immunization Week this year. More than 90% of children 19 to 35 months have received all the recommended doses of vaccines for their age against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, and hepatitis B — and more than 80% have received all the recommended protection against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, pneumococcus, and Haemophilus influenzae.
But there are also reasons to be concerned. Only 72% have had all the recommended vaccines, which means one in four children is missing at least one. Even more concerning, studies show that ther...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 24, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Infectious diseases Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Vaccinations: More than just kid stuff
Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling
This is the time of year when it’s important to think about flu vaccinations. And there’s good reason for that! The flu causes thousands of preventable hospitalizations and deaths each year.
But what about other vaccinations? Do you think of them as something for kids? You aren’t alone. And it’s true, a number of vaccinations are recommended for young children as well as preteens and teenagers. These vaccinations have provided an enormous benefit to public health by preventing diseases that were common and sometimes deadly in the past, including polio, rubella, and whooping cough....
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 7, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Infectious diseases Prevention Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Varicella Vaccination in the United States
For over 50 years, deaths due to varicella in the United States have exceeded deaths from measles, mumps and rubella. The introduction of varicella vaccine during 1995 to 1996 was followed by a marked decline in mortality rates. [1,2] See graphs below [3]
References:
Berger SA. Varicella-Zoster: Global Status, 2018. 157 pages, 133 graphs, 927 references. Gideon e-books, https://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/disease/varicella-zoster-global-status/
Berger SA. Infectious Diseases of the United States, 2018. 1,220 pages, 496 graphs, 14,855 references. Gideon e-books, https://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/countr...
Source: GIDEON blog - February 5, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs ProMED Source Type: blogs
Facts aren ’t everything – understanding parents’ moral reasons for avoiding vaccination
By Emma Young
Last year, so few people contracted measles in England and Wales that the disease was declared technically “eliminated”. The national MMR (measles mumps rubella) vaccination programme is to thank. But set against this welcome news were some imperfect stats: in England in 2016/17, only 87.6 per cent of children had received both the required doses of the vaccine by their fifth birthday – a drop compared with the previous two years. At least part of the reason was a reluctance among some parents to have their children vaccinated. This is a problem that affects other countries, and other vaccines, ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - January 8, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Health Morality Source Type: blogs
Children are Being Educated in School to Obey the Government ’s Vaccination Agenda
Conclusion
The message is clear, as far as governments are concerned: the more often something is repeated, the more likely the public will believe it. Or, in the words of Joseph Goebbels, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” [8]
References
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com…history-and-biology-of-vaccines/
http://www.ukcolumn.org/article/magic-madness-governments-nlp-assault-our-minds
https://thenib.com/vaccines-work-here-are-the-facts-5de3d0f9ffd0
https://www.popsci.com/16-african-countries-have-overtaken-us-measles-vaccinations
https:/...
Source: vactruth.com - November 10, 2017 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Christina England, BA Hons Tags: Christina England Logical Top Stories Maki Naro NLP truth about vaccines Source Type: blogs
