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| Vaccines in the News |
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| Media coverage about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases |
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| Rubella |
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| ACIP: No Preference for Separate MMR and Varicella Vaccines |
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| MedPage Today |
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| June 30, 2009 |
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| “The government's vaccine advisory panel has endorsed giving an infant varicella vaccine either by itself or in combination with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR)...” |
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ACIP Revises Immunity Requirements for HCW MMR Vaccination |
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| Pediatric Supersite |
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| June 24, 2009 |
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| "The Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices has updated a decade-old policy about immunity
requirements regarding measles-mumps and rubella vaccination for health
care workers. Kathleen Gallagher, DSc, from the Division of Viral
Diseases at CDC, said her working group recommended changing four areas
of the immunity requirements for healthcare personnel, originally
published in 1997 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The first
change regarded the addition of laboratory confirmation of disease as
adequate proof of immunity against MMR. She said this recommendation was
consistent with routine surveillance practices that accept this data as
proof of immunity..." |
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'Very High' Uptake of MMR School Vaccination |
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| Irish Times (Ireland) |
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April 28, 2009 |
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| "Ireland's Health Service Executive
launched a measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination campaign in
second-level schools on April 24 to combat a nationwide mumps outbreak.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre reported 2,194 mumps cases at
the end of the week, up by about 2,000 from the same period in 2008, and
the number is expected to rise as areas that have not yet reported to
the center do so. The center says vaccine uptake is 'very high' since
the start of the campaign, and health officials say the vaccine will be
offered again in September for students who do not receive it prior to
summer vacation..." |
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State Confirms 1st Case of Rubella since 2000; Vaccinations Advised |
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| Star Tribune (MN) |
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| April 18, 2009 |
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| "A Twin Cities woman has come down
with the state's first case of rubella, or German measles, in nine
years, Minnesota health officials reported Friday. The unidentified
woman, who is in her 30s, had not been vaccinated against the illness
but is now recovering, said Kris Ehresmann, who heads the state
immunization program..." |
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Letter to the Editor: Rubella Is Danger Without Vaccination |
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| Columbus Dispatch (OH) |
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| April 16, 2009 |
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| "The birth of a baby should be a
happy day, but what if the child was blind, deaf and covered in blue
spots? This "blueberry muffin" baby could be the result of rubella
infection in his mother during pregnancy. The "R" of the MMR vaccine,
rubella, is a rather mild infection, often having no symptoms, but it
can have devastating effects in an unborn child whose mother contracts
the disease during pregnancy. Long-term medical follow-up would be
required for this infant, but no specific treatment exists. With the
outbreak of measles in Pennsylvania this last month related to children
not receiving the MMR vaccine, one must wonder if there will be a
resurgence of babies with congenital rubella syndrome down the road.
While it is the parents' right to decline the MMR vaccine for their own
children, I hope they recognize that it may be their future
grandchildren who are horribly affected by their decision. By Dr. Andrea
Hahn" |
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Anatomy of a Scare: When one study linked childhood vaccines to autism,
it set off a panic |
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| Newsweek |
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February 21, 2009
From the magazine issue dated March 2, 2009 |
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| "Like many people in London on that
bleak February day in 1998, biochemist Nicholas Chadwick was eager to
hear what the scientists would say. The Royal Free Hospital, where he
was a graduate student in the lab of gastroenterologist Andrew
Wakefield, had called a press conference to unveil the results of a new
study. With flashbulbs popping, Wakefield stepped up to the bank of
microphones: he and his colleagues, he said, had discovered a new
syndrome that they believed was triggered by the MMR (measles, mumps,
rubella) vaccine..." |
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MMR Scare Doctor Andrew Wakefield Makes Fortune in US |
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| Times Online |
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| February 14, 2009 |
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| "The doctor who triggered an
international scare over the MMR vaccine, contributing to a resurgence
of measles cases in Britain, has admitted that his claims are 'not
proved.' Andrew Wakefield, who is the subject of a disciplinary inquiry
by the General Medical Council, told The Times that he was unrepentant
about his theory linking the combined MMR vaccine to bowel disorders and
autism..." |
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MMR Vaccine: 'No jab, no school' |
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| The Guardian (UK) |
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| February 10, 2009 |
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| "As British health experts become
increasingly anxious about declining rates of immunisation and the risk
of a serious measles epidemic in the UK, the American authorities are
convinced that their tougher rules are the answer. Parents in the US are
not simply advised by the health authorities to get their children
vaccinated against measles - they are obliged to do it by law. Children
who have not been immunised face a 'no jab, no school' exclusion from
daycare, nursery and school. In extreme cases, their parents have been
threatened with fines and jail..." |
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MMR Doctor Andrew Wakefield Fixed Data on Autism |
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| Times Online (UK) |
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| February 8, 2009 |
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"The doctor who sparked the scare
over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported
results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with
autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found..."
See all articles in this series by Brian Deer
Hidden Records Show MMR Truth
How the MMR Scare Led to Return of Measles
MMR: Key Dates in the Crisis |
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More German Children Need Measles Jabs: WHO study |
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| Reuters |
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| February 2, 2009 |
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| "A new World Health Organization
study says more German children need measles vaccines to prevent another
outbreak like the one that occurred in 2006 and affected over 12,000
people in Germany, Romania, Britain, Switzerland, and Italy. Low
vaccination rates are blamed for the outbreak, and researchers from the
Robert Koch Institute in Berlin and two German public health centers say
"catch-up vaccination campaigns" targeting 10- to 14-year-olds should be
rolled out. A separate study published in The Lancet says Germany's
vaccination rate for children born in 1996 to 2003 is 70 percent.
Experts say a 95 percent vaccination rate for all of Europe is necessary
to prevent measles outbreaks..." |
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Measles Deaths Drop 74% Worldwide With Vaccine Push |
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| Bloomberg |
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| December 4, 2008 |
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| "Measles deaths tumbled 74 percent
worldwide from 2000 through 2007, the result of a campaign to vaccinate
children in developing countries, world health officials said today.
About 197,000 people died from measles last year compared with 750,000
in 2000, according to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. The biggest
improvements were in Africa and in eastern Mediterranean countries,
among them Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan..." |
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Measles and MMR: Sow the wind |
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| The Economist (UK) |
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| December 4, 2008 |
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| "Fledging engineers learn about
disasters like the 1988 Piper Alpha oil-rig fire or the explosion of the
space shuttle Challenger in 1986 as a reminder of the dangers that
attend their profession. Perhaps, if the subject ever achieves
respectability, media-studies undergraduates will pore over the measles,
mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine scare in 21st-century Britain. On
November 28th the Health Protection Agency (HPA), which monitors
infectious diseases, said that there were 1,049 cases of measles in
England and Wales in the ten months to October 2008. Even before the
year is out, that makes 2008 the worst year since 1995, when current
reporting methods began (see chart)..." |
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Mass Measles Vaccination Starts |
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| BBC News (UK) |
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| December 3, 2008 |
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| "A mass vaccination of more than
10,000 children is beginning in Cheshire to head off a measles epidemic.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said there had been 75 reported cases
of the illness in central and eastern parts of the county in 2008.
Nurses are visiting more than 200 schools to ‘nip it in the bud’, said
HPA spokesman Hugh Lamont. The agency has written to thousands of
parents asking for their consent for unprotected children to be
vaccinated. Health officials have identified 10,534 children - 17% of
Cheshire's school population - from the Child Health Register as not
having the MMR or the pre-school booster jab..." |
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Measles Cases Surge to New High |
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| BBC News (UK) |
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| November 28, 2008 |
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| "Measles cases in England and
Wales have topped 1,000 in a year for the first time in more than a
decade, Health Protection Agency figures show. In the first 10 months of
2008 there were 1,049 cases, more than in the whole of 2007, the agency
said. It said measles was spreading more easily because of the low
uptake of the combined MMR jab over the past decade. In Cheshire, an
outbreak of more than 60 cases has prompted the launch of a programme to
vaccinate 10,000 pupils..." |
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| WSU Student Diagnosed with Rubella |
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| Washington State University News |
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| July 29, 2008 |
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| "The Whitman County Health Department has confirmed the diagnosis of rubella (German measles, three-day measles) in an 18-year-old student from China. The student attended intensive language classes at Washington State University from July 7 to July 21, 2008..." |
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| Rubella Case Reported in North Dakota |
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| Star Tribune |
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| June 12, 2008 |
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| "North Dakota's first case since 1991 of rubella, commonly known as German measles, is being reported in a county bordering Minnesota. North Dakota's Health Department was notified last week of a Cass County man who had a rash, and tests confirmed that he had contracted rubella..." |
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| CDC Clarifies Preference on Childhood Vaccines |
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| Bloomberg |
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| March 13, 2008 |
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| "Children who get a combined vaccine against measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox are slightly more likely to have seizures compared to those getting two separate shots for the same diseases, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The seizures are not usually life-threatening and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was no longer expressing a preference that children get the so-called MMRV combined vaccine rather than two shots -- the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (German measles) and a separate one against varicella (chicken pox)..." |
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| Immunization Action Coalition • 1573 Selby Avenue • Saint Paul, MN 55104 |
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