We’ve known how to control typhoid for over 100 years. The rapid current increase of drug-resistant variants in both rich and poor countries is down to decades of short-sighted global health policies.
If another parent at playgroup says she’s not vaccinating her child, what’s the best way to respond?
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Responding to someone who questions vaccination can be difficult. Before you react, it pays to assess the situation because weighing in can do more harm than good.
Many families in the DRC can’t routinely access preventive services.
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You no longer have to go to your GP to get your flu shot or catch up on vaccinations you missed earlier in life or have waning immunity to. But they’re unlikely to be free.
Kim Whitley holds her granddaughter Kole, 3, as she joins other opponents of the recently passed legislation to tighten the rules on giving exemptions for vaccinations In a demonstration in front of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Capitol office in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.
Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo
California has limited medical exemptions for vaccinating children. A new law places final authority with the state public health department, but does that shift the balance of power?
Industrial vaccine production has enabled mass vaccination campaigns that have reduced infectious diseases.
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Recent discoveries on the effects of live attenuated vaccines challenge the current vaccine paradigm and question vaccination policies.
Different countries take different approaches to get parents to vaccinate their children. But saying which one works best is difficult.
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In some countries, parents are fined if they don’t vaccinate their child or they have to go on a course before being granted an exemption to vaccinate. Are any of these options right for Australia?
The WHO withdrew measles-free status from the UK after there were 991 reported outbreaks of the disease last year.
Sascha Steinbach/EPA
When a certain percentage of a population has been vaccinated, it prevents an infectious disease from spreading. But that threshold depends on the disease.
Measles is contagious three or four days before a rash appears on the skin, making it highly communicable.
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Seven to 10 days in bed with a high fever and rash is the best outcome you can expect if your child catches measles. Brain damage or death is the worst.
Hepatitis is a major public health burden.
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Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made vaccination and post-infection therapy available. But the number of those infected annually and dying from viral Hepatitis continues to be high.
A health worker administers the Ebola vaccine.
EPA-EFE
The threat posed by measles is on the rise again in a number of countries in the world. One of them is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
If you’re going overseas with your little one, you can vaccinate them against measles early. But they’ll still need their regular jab when they turn one.
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Babies are normally vaccinated against measles at 12 months old. But doctors are now suggesting having the shot as early as six months might be worthwhile for youngsters traveling overseas.
You might feel a bit off after your flu shot but this doesn’t last long.
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The flu vaccine takes about two weeks to start working and only protects against influenza, so you can still get sick from other viruses after your flu shot.
Two women sell roadside refreshments in rural Kano in 2011.
Shobana Shankar
Shobana Shankar, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Nigeria’s highly mobilized efforts to eliminate polio, and even tackle measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases along the way, may have lessons for the US.
Children are more likely than adults to catch and spread influenza.
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Children’s immune systems are more vulnerable to the flu; even kids who are otherwise healthy can develop complications. The best way to protect children is by having them vaccinated.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand