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| Vaccines in the News |
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| Media coverage about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases |
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| Rabies |
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Rabies Alert Continues For North Escambia; Person Bit By Rabid Fox |
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| NorthEscambia.com (FL) |
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| September 13, 2009 |
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| "A Rabies Alert continues for
North Escambia after one person was bit by a rabid fox and two raccoons that
bit dogs tested positive for rabies. Robert Merritt, director of
environmental health for the Escambia County Health Department, said that a
dog was bitten by a rabid raccoon on Crabtree Church Road in Molino in May,
and a dog was bitten by a rabid raccoon on Handy Road in Cottage Hill last
month. He said a fox that bit a person somewhere in North Escambia last
month also tested positive for rabies, but, due to patient privacy laws, he
was not able to identify in which community the incident occurred..." |
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Expert on Wildlife Rabies Worked at CDC; His Book Has Been Worldwide
Reference Since '75 |
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| Atlanta Journal-Constitution |
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| July 14, 2009 |
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| "Dr. George Baer devoted his life to
preventive medicine and combating disease. Colleagues consider the
virologist, veterinarian and public health scientist the "father of oral
rabies vaccination." In 1969, he and a team of scientists and researchers
developed a method for the immunization of wildlife against rabies in
laboratories at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control. His creation
of an oral rabies vaccine led to the eradication of wildlife rabies in most
of Europe. Because of his passion, research and writing, Dr. Baer was
regarded as an international expert on wildlife rabies. Dr. George Martin
Baer, 73, of Mexico City and formerly of Atlanta, died June 2 from
complications of a suspected heart attack at his home..." |
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Federal Advisory Panel: Just 4 Rabies Shots Needed |
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| Boston Globe |
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| June 24, 2009 |
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| "People exposed to rabies need only
four vaccinations, not the five currently recommended, a vaccine
advisory committee said Wednesday. In the past, rabies shots were
dreaded almost as much as the disease itself. Until the 1970s, an
encounter with a rabid animal led to at least 14 shots in the abdomen.
But vaccines have improved, and five shots in the arm or thigh have been
the U.S. standard for more than 20 years. The Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices voted unanimously that four shots -- all given
within the first 14 days after exposure to rabies -- are sufficient..." |
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Angola: Record Rabies Outbreak Kills 93 Children |
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ReliefWeb |
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March 11, 2009 |
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"One of the most severe rabies epidemics to hit Angola has claimed
the lives of at least 93 children within 3 months in the capital,
Luanda. 'The 93 children were brought to our hospital and are the only
ones we know of, so the number could be higher,' said Luis Bernardino,
head of the Hospital Pediatrico David Bernardino in Luanda, the
country's largest referral hospital. 'The number of cases has, however,
started declining now.' He said the hospital was unable to save any of
the children, as it had run out of doses of rabies vaccine; in some
instances, the children were brought in too late. "It is a sad moment
for us," said Bernardino. Francois Meslin, the rabies expert at the
World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, said in the last
severe rabies outbreak, from 1998 to 2003 in Indonesia's Flores Island,
100 people had died within a year..." |
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Brazilian Boy with Rabies in Recovery |
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| Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
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| November 16, 2008 |
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| "A 15-year-old boy from Brazil who
contracted rabies from the bite of a vampire bat is recovering after
doctors used a novel treatment developed at Children's Hospital of
Wisconsin. "This is wonderful news," said Rodney Willoughby Jr., a
pediatric infectious disease specialist at the hospital and the Medical
College of Wisconsin, on Saturday. Willoughby supervised a team that
used the same type of treatment protocol in 2004 to save the life of
Jeanna Giese, a Fond du Lac teenager. At the time, Giese was the only
person known to have survived rabies without having been vaccinated. To
date, three people, all of them children, have been successfully treated
using what is referred to as the "Milwaukee protocol," according to
Willoughby and the Brazilian health ministry..." |
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| Vampire Bats Blamed for Venezuela Rabies Outbreak |
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| The Independent (UK) |
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| August 10, 2008 |
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| "At least 38 Venezuelans have died as a result of a suspected outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. Laboratory tests have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, say researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and other medical experts..." |
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| Area Residents Bit by Rabid Fox |
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| Clay County Progress |
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| July 24, 2008 |
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| "A dead fox found July 15 near where a fox attacked a 10-year-old girl and 61-year-old woman on July 14 has been confirmed as rabid. Kim McClain of the Cherokee County Health Department wrote in a report on Thursday that the state lab called and said the fox tested positive for the rabies virus, said Tim Nicholson, a registered environmental health specialist/registered sanitarian with the health department..." |
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| Vaccine Shortage Limits Rabies Shots |
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| Star Tribune (MN) |
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| June 10, 2008 |
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| "An international shortage of rabies vaccine has prompted Minnesota health officials to advise clinics to restrict the shots only to people in immediate danger. For now that means no more "preexposure" or preventive shots for people traveling abroad or working with animals, according to Dr. Joni Scheftel, a rabies expert at the Minnesota Department of Health.." |
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| 16-Year Old Dies of Rabies in Santa Maria; Public Health Officials Trying to Track Down Traveling Companion |
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| The Santa Barbara Independent |
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| March 21, 2008 |
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| "Rabies is what killed a 16-year-old in Santa Maria on Tuesday, and public health officials are trying to track down a companion who recently traveled with the teenager from Mexico. The boy came into the Marian Medical Center on March 18 delirious and drooling, and was having trouble breathing. He required resuscitation immediately, but doctors were not able to save his life..." |
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