Chickenpox Vaccine May Increase Shingles Risk
Before the licensing of the live varicella zoster (chickenpox) virus vaccine in 1995 and subsequent mandating of the vaccine for all children in the U.S., chickenpox itself was considered one of the milder “rites of passage” for children and the vast majority of children experienced the common childhood disease before age ten. Most people have heard about how parents commonly…
A Dozen Boys in England Collapse After Receiving Meningococcal ACWY Vaccine
Public health officials in the United Kingdom launched a brief investigation of incident involving about a dozen boys at a secondary school in Northampton, England who collapsed on January 26, 2016 after receiving a routine series of meningococcal quadrivalent vaccines (bacteria types A, C, W135 and Y) for meningitis. The boys are 10th grade students at the Northampton School for Boys. According to an article by The Daily Mail, the mother…
Vaccine Injury Claims Expected to Increase in 2016
It came as no surprise to me that during the meeting of the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV) on December 4, 2015 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Division of Injury Compensation Programs (DICP) reported that the number of vaccine injury claims for this fiscal year will exceed previous years. I have monitored this committee for the past six years and have seen the number of claims rise every year. Sadly, they are…
Recently Vaccinated Kids Are Spreading Pertussis Everywhere
There was fuss in the media last month about a little study of 26 vaccinated Florida pre-schoolers, who got sick with B. pertussis whooping cough or had pertussis-like symptoms during a five-month period in 2013. All of the children, aged one to five years attending the Tallahassee preschool, had received three to four doses of pertussis vaccine (DtaP) according to the CDC…
American College of Pediatricians Warns About Gardasil Risk
The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) released a statement last month expressing concerns about Merck and Co.’s human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil, and its correlation to premature ovarian failure, also known as premature menopause. The ACP’s concerns are based on two case report series published since 2013 in which girls vaccinated with Gardasil developed premature menopause. Further, there have been 213 reports of
The Immunocompromised Still Get Vaccinated
One of the more often repeated reasons you hear as to why everyone should get vaccinated is “to protect the immunocompromised”—those persons whose immune system is so weakened or suppressed that they cannot tolerate the effects a vaccine might have on them. These may include patients who are undergoing treatment for a medical condition. For example, chemotherapy for cancer. It may include people with AIDS, or organ transplant patients who are on immunosuppressive drugs. It may include individuals who have inherited diseases, such as congenital agammaglobulinemia or congenital IgA deficiency, that affect their immune system.