CDC: Vaccination rates among kindergartners remain stable
kkrisberg | October 17, 2017
In more encouraging public health news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that vaccination rates among kindergarteners have remained stable, with the median vaccine exemption rate at 2 percent. Some states even reported an increase in immunization rates. In a study published last week in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers examined 2016-2017 data from 49 states regarding coverage of three vaccines: measles, mumps and rubella (MMR); diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP); and varicella, more commonly known as chickenpox. Researchers also…
Study: Trust in science spiked after media coverage of Zika vaccine trial
Policy kkrisberg | August 3, 2017
Public trust in science is a fickle creature. Surveys show a clear majority of Americans believe science has positively impacted society, and they're more likely to trust scientists on issues like climate change and vaccines. On the other hand, surveys also find that factors like politics, religion, age and race can greatly impact the degree of that trust. It presents a delicate challenge for agencies that depend on trust in science to do their jobs. "Trust in science is high, but it's not unanimous and it's not completely unquestioned — and nor necessarily should it be," Joseph Hilgard, an…
Study: Small drop in measles vaccination rate could cost public sector millions of dollars
Another day, another study that underscores the societal benefits of vaccines and the consequences we'd face without them. In a study published earlier this week in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers took on the issue of vaccine hesitancy by estimating the disease burden and economic costs associated with declines in the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination rate. They noted that while overall childhood vaccine rates remain high in the U.S., there are areas where nonmedical exemption policies are materializing into declining immunization coverage. For example, this 2016 article in PLOS Medicine…
Vaccine advocacy 101
tsmith | July 26, 2017
I recently finished a 2-year stint as an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer. It's an excellent program--ASM pays all travel expenses for lecturers, who speak at ASM Branch meetings throughout the country. I was able to attend Branch meetings from California and Washington in the West, to Massachusetts in the east, and south as far as El Paso, Texas, with many in-between. Each Lecturer selects several topics to speak on, and the Branch chooses from those which they want to hear. Mine included basic research (zoonotic disease, antibiotic resistance) as well as science…
Study: Training parents as immunization advocates a promising approach to vaccine hesitancy
Protecting babies and children against dangerous — sometimes fatal — diseases is a core mission of public health. Everyday, in health departments across the nation, someone is working on maintaining and improving childhood vaccination rates and keeping diseases like measles and mumps from regaining a foothold in the U.S. Fortunately for us, public health has been so successful that it's easy to forget what it was like just a few decades ago when measles was a common childhood illness. (Though here's a reminder.) But sustaining vaccination rates that provide population-wide protection against…
Study: Seven-fold increase in antibiotic-resistant infection among children
Social Sciences kkrisberg | March 3, 2017
Most news on the dangers of antibiotic-resistant infections focus on adults. But children are very much at risk too. In fact, a recent study found that U.S. children have experienced a 700 percent surge in infections caused by particular bacteria that's both resistant to multiple antibiotics and responsible for growing numbers of serious bacterial infections in kids. "These organisms are scary, they're hard to treat and respond to few antibiotics…and it's the type of antibiotic resistance that's capable of spreading itself to adjacent bacteria even if those bacteria haven't been exposed to…
'Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines save lives.'
kkrisberg | February 17, 2017
The anti-vaxxers were out again this week, spreading misinformation and debunked science about an intervention that's saved millions of lives and prevented immeasurable human suffering. It's unconscionable. That person is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who — to repeat — is not a doctor, not a scientist, not a public health practitioner, not an expert in vaccinology. Regardless, he told the press earlier this year that President Trump had asked him to chair a vaccine safety commission, even though the country already has one of those — it's called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and…
Trump in talks with anti-vaxxer to chair commission on vaccine safety. Seriously.
kkrisberg | January 10, 2017
Because taking health insurance away from millions of Americans isn't bad enough, President-elect Trump has reportedly asked an outspoken critic of vaccines — a man who supported the thoroughly debunked notion that vaccines are linked to autism — to lead a commission on vaccine safety. That man is Robert Kennedy Jr., who in 2005 wrote a "expose" published in Salon and Rolling Stone arguing that thimerosal, a preservative in vaccines, is tied to autism. Salon retracted the article after critics "further eroded any faith we had in the story's value." Rolling Stone dumped the story too. More…
Bracing for President Trump
milhayser | November 30, 2016
The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the U.S. caught nearly everyone by surprise, and fingers were immediately pointed in all directions as the election's losers looked to lay blame. Chad Orzel offers one relevant narrative: "There are a lot of people who feel like they're being screwed by a system run for the benefit of people in big cities on the coasts who sneer at them as ignorant, racist hicks." Ethan Siegel extends an olive branch on Starts With a Bang, saying "we all have our biases, even if we ourselves are scientists," and encourages EVERYONE to accept the responsibility…
When adults forgo their immunizations, it costs the nation billions in care
Another day, another study on the benefit of vaccines. This time, it's a study on the economic cost of vaccine-preventable diseases among U.S. adults — a cost that likely surpasses your wildest guesses. Published this week in Health Affairs, the study found that vaccine-preventable diseases affecting adults cost the American economy $8.95 billion in 2015, with unvaccinated adults accounting for $7.1 billion of that total. To conduct the study, researchers examined the economic burden associated with 10 vaccines that protect against hepatitis A; hepatitis B; shingles (or herpes zoster); human…
Study: Vaccine refusal is fueling the spread of potentially deadly diseases
kkrisberg | March 23, 2016
A recent study finds vaccine refusals have, indeed, accelerated the resurgence of whooping cough and measles here in the U.S. The findings are making headlines around the country — and comment sections are filling up with vitriol from anti-vaxxers — but it would feel amiss not to highlight the study on a blog dedicated to public health. But first, let's remind ourselves of the pain and suffering that preceded vaccines. Here's a brief snapshot of what life was like before vaccines and what it's currently like for people without access to these life-saving medicines: Whooping cough (pertussis…
Study: Dramatic drop in HPV cases since introduction of the HPV vaccine
Another day, another study on the potentially life-saving impact of vaccines. This time it's a new study on the vaccine against human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer. Earlier this week, researchers announced that since the vaccine came on the scene, rates of HPV among young women in the U.S. have plummeted. Published in the journal Pediatrics, the study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to analyze HPV prevalence among women ages 14 to 34 in the four years before the HPV vaccine was introduced in 2006 and…
CDC: Between 2000–2014, measles vaccine prevented more than 17 million deaths
kkrisberg | December 1, 2015
I usually shy away from getting too personal in my work. But in the spirit of Thanksgiving and as a new mom, I was thinking about things for which I'm particularly grateful. One of the first things that came to mind as a public health reporter? Vaccines. So, in that vein, let's celebrate some new and promising numbers on the worldwide effort to eliminate measles. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data on progress toward measles elimination since 2000. That's the year the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals, which included a goal to…
Adult Vaccine Access Coalition launches to rally efforts to increase adult immunization rates
When it comes to immunization rates in the United States, the story is a mixed one. Among children, we've absolutely excelled. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the nation's childhood vaccination rate as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. But when it comes to American adults — 50,000 of whom die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases — it's a very different story. Earlier this year, CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reported that uptake of recommended adult immunizations remains low and is far below Healthy…
Nigeria has gone one year without a reported polio case
lborkowski | August 3, 2015
Last week, Nigeria met an important milestone: An entire year without a reported case of polio. If the WHO confirms the absence of the virus in samples taken from people in previously affected areas, Nigeria will no longer be on the list of countries where the disease is endemic. Another two years will have to pass without additional cases before the WHO can certify Nigeria -- and possibly the entire continent of Africa -- as polio-free. India was in a similar position a few years ago: In 2012, it was removed from the list of polio-endemic countries, and the WHO declared it polio-free in 2014…
Researchers: Inadequate vaccination rates fueled recent measles outbreak
In a somewhat frightening illustration of anti-vaccine trends, a new report estimates that among groups affected in the recent measles outbreak, the rates of measles-mumps-rubella immunization might have been as low as 50 percent. Earlier this month, a report published in JAMA Pediatrics concluded that MMR vaccination rates in many of the populations affected by the Disneyland-related measles outbreak are well below the necessary numbers to maintain herd immunity. Led by researchers at Boston Children's Informatics Program, the project used disease data from the California Department of…
Study: HPV vaccine does not lead to higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases
Medicine kkrisberg | February 13, 2015
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccine to protect against cancers caused by certain strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, public health advocates cheered its arrival and life-saving potential. Unfortunately, the new vaccine quickly became embroiled in a debate over whether immunizing young girls against HPV, a sexually transmitted disease, would lead to risky sexual behavior. A new study, however, finds that the vaccine is not associated with an uptick in STDs — an indicator that HPV immunization does not promote unsafe sex. To conduct the study, which…
From Best American Science & Nature Writing, warnings on antibiotics and vaccines
Social Sciences lborkowski | November 5, 2014
Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014, edited by Pulitzer-winning writer and professor Deborah Blum, features two pieces that remind us how public-health interventions can become less effective if we as a society don't use them appropriately -- and, based on the spelling of the authors' last names, they're right next to each other in the anthology. Maryn McKenna's "Imaging the Post-Antibiotics Futre," published in Medium, and Seth Mnookin's "The Return of Measles" from the Boston Globe Magazine warn that diseases we thought we'd conquered could easily return and become major killers…
Another study finds that despite rare adverse events, childhood vaccines are safe
Medicine kkrisberg | July 8, 2014
Vaccine safety is one of those topics that has become so tragically mired in misinformation and myth that there can never be enough supporting evidence. So, here's some more. In a systematic review of the scientific literature on childhood immunizations that will be published in the August issue of Pediatrics, researchers found that vaccine-related adverse events are "extremely rare" and that — once again — the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine (MMR) is not associated with autism. Overall, the study found that while the risks associated with childhood vaccines are not zero, the evidence shows…
What would Ciro do now? Learning from a public health hero
lborkowski | June 18, 2014
by Phyllis Freeman and Anthony Robbins, MD, MPA One of our public health heroes, Ciro de Quadros, a public health physician from Brazil died on May 28, 2014. We need his attitude, skills, and persistence more than ever today. Ciro was a master of innovation, particularly in his efforts to prevent infectious diseases with vaccines. It seems especially timely today to review highlights of his career. And why now? For one, because just now efforts to eliminate polio are foundering in the wake of the US CIA's disastrous and hugely counterproductive scheme to identify Osama bin Laden's children…