vaccination
Vaccine Safety: New Report Finds Few Adverse Events Linked to Immunizations
In a new report investigating adverse events caused by vaccines, a panel of experts says there are relatively few health problems caused by the most commonly recommended immunizations, which public health experts advise that all …
The Healthland Podcast: Customizing Your Baby, Masturbation, and the Vaccine Wars
Welcome back! This week we debate the ethics of a blood test that can reveal your baby’s sex at just seven weeks of pregnancy. Also: a big new study on how masturbation affects sexual development. Finally, science editor Jeffrey …
Family MattersParenting
Should Pediatricians ‘Fire’ Patients Whose Parents Don’t Vaccinate?
Recently, my 4-year-old got poked five times, and vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, diptheria, tetanus and pertussis — among other nasties — coursed into her loudly protesting body. Within hours, she’d spiked a …
Family MattersFlu
Who’s Afraid of the Flu? Not Moms
In a typical flu season, up to 150 U.S. children die; last year’s numbers were even worse: the swine flu pandemic killed 1,100 kids. Still, one-third of U.S. moms don’t plan to get their children a flu shot this season, …
Post-H1N1, Why You Still Need to Worry About Flu
The H1N1 pandemic has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of the flu strain that started it all.
Moving toward a breast cancer vaccine?
New research in mice may be a first step toward a breast cancer vaccine for humans. The findings, published online Sunday and scheduled to run in the June 10 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, found that mice who were genetically engineered to be at high risk for breast cancer were effectively immunized against the disease after being
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Doctor behind vaccine-autism link loses license
It took nearly six months but the General Medical Council (GMC) in the U.K. has pulled Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s license to practice medicine in the United Kingdom.
Wakefield is the researcher who nearly single-handedly fueled parental concerns about the link between vaccines and autism. In 1998, he published a paper in the medical …
Fewer babies dying worldwide
In a bit of welcome news on infant mortality rates worldwide, researchers at University of Washington are reporting a lower death rate for children under five than previous UNICEF estimates had calculated.
According to a new assessment of data, including birth and death records, as well as census and survey results, the authors found …
A breakthrough in vaccine preservation
Vaccines have dramatically impacted global health: by 1979, international vaccination campaigns had successfully led to the eradication of smallpox, which was once estimated to kill as many as 30% of people infected. And since the launch of the World Health Organization’s polio eradication campaign in 1988, widespread vaccination has
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Beating cancer with prevention
Some 40% of cancers could be prevented with simple lifestyle changes and higher levels of protection from cancer-causing infections, according to experts at the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). Cancer-causing infections are responsible for 22% of deaths in the developing world, and 6% of deaths in the developed world, according
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Where can you get a flu shot? Ask Google
Google recently teamed up with the Department of Health and Human Services to create a map function that will let you find out where you can get both H1N1 and seasonal flu shots by simply entering in your zip code or home town. The recently launched “flu shot locator” is still in initial phases, and currently only has data for about 20
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