Talking Science: Facts About Vaccines and Herd Immunity
This week is World Immunization Week and what better way to commemorate it than by discussing the facts about vaccines and the importance of herd immunity. But first...
What exactly IS a vaccine?
A vaccine is a biological agent that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific pathogen, protecting the person from a disease. That's how vaccines work. You get an inactivated, attenuated, or a portion of the version of the pathogen you're hoping to avoid.
According to the CDC, routine vaccines given to children in the last two decades will prevent hundreds of millions illnesses, tens of millions h...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - April 26, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Talking Science: Facts About Vaccines and Herd Immunity
This week is World Immunization Week and what better way to commemorate it than by discussing the facts about vaccines and the importance of herd immunity. But first...
What exactly IS a vaccine?
A vaccine is a biological agent that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific pathogen, protecting the person from a disease. That's how vaccines work. You get an inactivated, attenuated, or a portion of the version of the pathogen you're hoping to avoid.
According to the CDC, routine vaccines given to children in the last two decades will prevent hundreds of millions illnesses, tens of millions h...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - April 26, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news
This Disease Can Still Get You Quarantined For Months -- And It's On The Rise
In August 2014, Kate O’Brien, a 34-year-old media producer from Brooklyn, found out she was expecting her second child. She was ecstatic. But this pregnancy didn't proceed like the first. For the next few months, O'Brien had a cold she couldn't shake. She woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. She wanted to blame it on her pregnancy, yet she kept losing weight. She could barely eat. She coughed up balls of bloody mucus. Her throat burned. None of her doctors could figure out what was wrong. A physician sent her to Mount Sinai West Hospital in Manhattan in January 2015, when, at five months pregnant, s...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - March 24, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news
He Looks At Tuberculosis Death Toll And Wonders Why You're Not Worried
Aaron Motsoaledi is tired of delivering the same spiel over and over again. No matter how many times the charismatic health minister of South Africa speaks out, people don’t seem to grasp the threat presented by tuberculosis, now the No. 1 infectious killer in the world. “People think it’s a curable disease that’s been there for ages, so what’s new? I think that’s the mentality,” Dr. Motsoaledi told The Huffington Post. As chair of the Stop TB Partnership, a group of public and private leaders hosted through the United Nations Office for Project Service, he has seen the eyes o...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - March 24, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news
Use of Vaccinia Virus Smallpox Vaccine in Laboratory and Health Care Personnel at Risk for Occupational Exposure to Orthopoxviruses — Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 2015
(Source: CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report)
Source: CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report - March 18, 2016 Category: American Health Source Type: news
CDC Publishes Smallpox Vaccine Recommendations (FREE)
By the Editors
The CDC has published updated guidelines on using vaccinia … (Source: Physician's First Watch current issue)
Source: Physician's First Watch current issue - March 18, 2016 Category: Primary Care Source Type: news
Why Curing Cancer Is Not a ‘Moonshot’
Here are some things that have been compared to moonshots: Google Books, nuclear fusion, Google Glass, artificial brains, drone delivery, getting from New York to London in one hour, a really big home run.
Here are some things that actually are moonshots: going to the moon.
Of all of the metaphors that have gotten shiny at the elbows, it’s the beleaguered “moonshot” that may be the worst. President Obama rolled it out again during his final State of the Union address when, expressing a desire to cure cancer once and for all, he called for a moonshot to get the job done.
The audience applauded as audiences...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - January 13, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Cancer health moonshot NASA President Kennedy President Nixon President Obama state of the union War on Cancer Source Type: news
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OCTOBER FLU VACCINE CLINICS ARE NOW SCHEDULED.TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT PLEASE CALL THE OFFICE AT 630.717.2300-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Know how we like to buy fruit scented soaps so our kids will want to wash their hands? It’s a great incentive especially if it gets them to do it without nagging!With these yummy smelling things comes the temptation ...
Source: Pediatric Health Associates - September 24, 2015 Category: Pediatrics Tags: Healthy Habits Source Type: news
New clues on the history of the smallpox vaccine virus
Given the fear that the variola virus could be reintroduced to humans in weaponized form, new generations of smallpox vaccines are highly needed. A new study provides fresh insights on the relationship among the vaccinia strains used to eradicate smallpox in the world and indicates that differently than previously thought, the Dryvax virus that led to the second-generation of smallpox vaccine in the USA is closely related to the Brazilian strain and might as well have come from the French and not the British. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Source: ScienceDaily Headlines - September 22, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Need, Greed, and GMOs: Genuflection in All the Wrong Directions
Images of scientists inserting eye-of-newt genes into escarole, or wool-of-bat genes into watercress stalk the nightmares of pure food proponents, and up to a point-- rightly so. Even if the intentions of those tinkering with foods are good- such as putting antifreeze genes from amphibians into oranges so they are not destroyed by an early frost- the law of unintended consequences pertains. There is ample reason, in principle, to be wary of Frankenfoods.
There may be reason in epidemiology as well. We are substantially uncertain about why rates of gluten intolerance and celiac disease are rising; genetic modification of f...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - September 22, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
New clues on the history of the smallpox vaccine virus
(Publicase Comunicação Científica) Given the fear that the variola virus could be reintroduced to humans in weaponized form, new generations of smallpox vaccines are highly needed. A new study provides fresh insights on the relationship among the vaccinia strains used to eradicate smallpox in the world and indicates that differently than previously thought, the Dryvax virus that led to the second-generation of smallpox vaccine in the USA is closely related to the Brazilian strain and might as well have come from the French and not the British. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - September 22, 2015 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Dr. Carson and Dr. Paul: Pandering to Anti-Vaxxers?!? Really?!?
Being a pediatrician and a public health advocate, there were several things that bothered me about Wednesday night's "debate" about vaccines. Let's start with the first part of Jake Tapper's question: "Dr. Carson, Donald Trump has publicly and repeatedly linked vaccines, childhood vaccines, to autism, which, as you know, the medical community adamantly disputes." Mr. Tapper, there is no dispute. The medical community has repeatedly disproven any links between childhood vaccines and autism. We did our job. It's time to do yours as a journalist. The next part of your question to Dr. Carson, "Should Mr. Trump stop saying thi...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - September 18, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Dr. Carson and Dr. Paul: Pandering to Anti-Vaxxers?!? Really?!?
Being a pediatrician and a public health advocate, there were several things that bothered me about Wednesday night's "debate" about vaccines. Let's start with the first part of Jake Tapper's question: "Dr. Carson, Donald Trump has publicly and repeatedly linked vaccines, childhood vaccines, to autism, which, as you know, the medical community adamantly disputes." Mr. Tapper, there is no dispute. The medical community has repeatedly disproven any links between childhood vaccines and autism. We did our job. It's time to do yours as a journalist. The next part of your question to Dr. Carson, "Should Mr. Trump stop saying thi...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - September 18, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
UCLA faculty voice: A win for vaccines, but worries remain
UCLA
Dr. Nina Shapiro
Dr. Nina Shapiro is director of pediatric otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat conditions) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of head and neck surgery. This op-ed was published July 23 in the Wall Street Journal.
In a growing number of states, parents can no longer refuse to immunize their children due to conflicting “personal beliefs” — at least not if they want their children to attend school. California recently joined West Virginia and Mississippi in requiring a medical exemption from a physician to permit a child to enter school without being immunized. Gov. Je...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - August 7, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Scientists hail '100% effective' Ebola vaccine
"Ebola vaccine is 'potential game-changer'," says BBC News, while the Daily Mail cites a "100% effective jab" for the disease. These headlines stem from early results of a trial investigating the effects of an Ebola vaccine during the most recent outbreak of the virus in west Africa.Researchers gave the Ebola virus vaccine to thousands of people in Guinea who'd had close contact with an infected individual – a process called "ring vaccination". Half the sample were given the vaccine immediately, while the other half were given the vaccine after a delay of three weeks.The early results, publi...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 3, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: QA articles Source Type: news
