Vaccination is one of the most important preventative measures against serious illness, but its very success may be working against it.
With parents no longer having the experience of the devastating…
The ABC’s popular Q And A show revolves around opinion. But not all opinions are of equal value.
ABC TV
Every year, I try to do at least two things with my students at least once. First, I make a point of addressing them as “philosophers” – a bit cheesy, but hopefully it encourages active learning.
Secondly…
Infants too young to receive the whooping cough vaccine are at greatest risk.
flickr/rifqy
Recent news reports say the free whooping cough vaccine for parents to protect newborns will be discontinued because it is not effective. Parents who’ve been told this is an important step to protect their…
Up to one million Africa children die of malaria every year.
US Army Africa
The great burden of death and disease caused by the malaria parasite often goes unnoticed in the developed world. But it’s the leading cause of death in children under five years old in many sub-Sahara…
Researchers aren’t sure whether a relatively common environmental chemical compromises our immune response to vaccines.
Chris RubberDragon
Will our desire for seafood and non-stick frying pans compromise the effectiveness of vaccines intended to protect us from nasty diseases? Research published today in the Journal of the American Medical…
Sometimes it only takes one or two powerfully conveyed stories of disease affliction to spur people into getting their vaccinations.
AAP
Whenever stories about vaccination hit the headlines, just how deeply we value vaccines becomes strikingly clear. Whether it’s the celebration of new vaccines, the outrage at disease outbreaks, or the…
All vaccines rely on generating an immune response that persists but our understanding of immune memory has some way to go.
James Gathany/CDC
Influenza is never off the news agenda for long. If it’s not the flu season (and it always is in one hemisphere) and the attendant calls for vaccinations, it’s news about vaccines causing problems or new…
Case closed: the MMR vaccine has no relationship with autism.
Few medical myths have spread as feverishly and contributed to so much preventable illness than the theory that the triple measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine might be linked to autism.
The tale…
Michelle Bachmann is not an authority on HPV vaccination but may negatively influence the vaccine’s uptake in the United States.
Gage Skidmore
Michele Bachmann’s unfounded statement about HPV vaccination and mental retardation couldn’t be further from the truth. But the damage her statements may cause is even more disturbing than what she says…
There’s a temporal link between autism being diagnosed and children getting several vaccinations.
nealeanddalissa/Flickr
The lack of scientific literacy in the media causes much harm to public understanding of the role and importance of vaccines. The latest instance revives the same old fears using the same formula that…
In the developed world, people who regularly inject drugs are most at risk of being infected with hepatitis C.
AAP
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that infects about 3% of the world’s population. It’s a significant cause of both illness and death due to cirrhosis (advanced liver scarring) and liver cancer.
By the…
Preventing infection with the Hendra virus remains the most effective measure against the virus.
AAP
Queensland authorities came under attack yesterday for being unprepared for a Hendra virus outbreak after it was found that they’d only stocked 15 doses of virus antibodies.
But the case for stocking…
Vaccines are history’s best public health tools but developing countries give low priority to health in their budgets.
AAP
The Lancet, one of most prestigious medical journals in the world recently published a series of five papers on “the new decade of vaccines”.
These were followed by a sixth paper – A call to action for…
With a bacterial base, liquid vaccines could be produced quickly and at low cost.
Flickr/hdptcar
Twenty years after his discovery that peptic ulcers were caused by a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori, Nobel Prize winner Barry Marshall is using the same bacteria as the base of an edible vaccine that…
A person harmed while helping the community attain herd immunity should be compensated.
AAP
By Heath Kelly, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory
When someone is adversely affected by a vaccine in Australia, their only way to receive compensation is through the courts. But this is not the case worldwide.
Vaccines undergo rigorous testing to ensure…
