Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Vaccines

It has been an ongoing debate for years whether vaccinations should be used or not, and it will continue to be debated for years to come. Anti Vaccine rallies are held and attended by those skeptical of today's vaccines being used to prevent diseases, such as Polio and Smallpox. Some of these protesters against vaccinations claim they are a violation on the beliefs of the founding fathers. Although vaccination was not the method used to prevent disease during the time of the founding fathers, inoculation was. Inoculation was a far less safer form of prevention than vaccines, yet founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams were all inoculated successfully, and supported this method. John Adams also has his family inoculated, like we watched in the movie in our class. In 1796 Edward Jenner made the discovery of vaccinations. In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson declared vaccination one of the nation’s first public health priorities. Considering the years of scientific advances in health measures, vaccines are proven to prevent some of the most deadly and contagious diseases we still face today. According to Dr. Howard Markel, a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan, so few Americans have firsthand knowledge of the safeness and reliability of vaccines. I agree with him completely because vaccines have clearly helped us come a long way in the history of health and science. Although some risks are involved, I feel the results in the end are worth it. To have the ability to prevent diseases that have shown to be so dangerous and contagious, and then take that ability away would be ridiculous. Instead of fighting and protesting against vaccines, we should be finding ways to make them better. This article reassured me that although many people fear, or protest against vaccination, many others fight to keep them around everyday as well. It is frustrating to read about anti vaccine rally members using the beliefs of the founding fathers against vaccination, when they actually helped create organizations supporting vaccination. I thought this article deserved attention because the on-going debate whether or not to use vaccines is a heavy subject. Also when debating this topic, all points should be made with fact-based information so people don't worry over points made without evidence. This debate will last a long time and the result will have an effect on everyone, so it is important that the information being released by both sides of the argument is fact based, so people actually know what they're fighting for. To me, a world without vaccination would be a scary place, so I truly hope people get to hear the truth of the history of vaccination.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/health/01smallpox.html

The Forgotten Epidemic in the U.S.

On Wednesday doctors gathered in Washington to discuss the AIDs epidemic in America before opening a national summit on AIDs. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop was the physician that put the spot light on the AIDs epidemic about three decades ago and is back to show to everyone that the AIDs epidemic has not gone away since then. Koop is now 94 years old but still knows his facts and says "The war against HIV/AIDS is far from over." With over 1 million Americans living with AIDs, it is still considered an epidemic, and one that kills 18,000 people a year. This disease has come a long way from where it was when it first became an epidemic thanks to modern medicine, but is still prevalent in the states.

The article in the Boston news can be found at:

http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/11/17/koop_aids_is_the_forgotten_epidemic/

AIDs have affected the world and have been a pandemic for many years. Many world efforts have been made to stop the spread of AIDs and to treat the victims of the disease, but as shown in the facts it has not been enough. There are many other current diseases around the world that are more prevalent today, but that does not mean we should stop our efforts on AIDs. We should fight each disease off one at a time. I can understand if countries with no sexual education or birth control have a higher numbers of AIDs victims, but to still see a large amount in America where most people have access to medical attention shows that we are not doing something right.

In the book Mountains Beyond Mountain AIDs is one of the more common diseases that they treat in the hospital in Haiti. I agree with Koop in that the efforts against AIDs is slacking and people should become more aware of how it still effects places like America today.

The World Health Organization’s Reaction to Swine Flu is Questioned

I’m sure we all remember very well last year when people started freaking out about swine flu. Most of us thought this was a severe over-reaction. Some of us knew people who died of swine flu. We all felt a certain way about it.

In this article a panel of independent experts review the World Health Organization’s handling of the swine flu epidemic. Although there was no evidence supporting their accusations that the World Health Organization played the swine flu up to make vaccine companies rich. The article makes you ask yourself: What is a healthy balance between over-reaction and under-reaction when dealing with the outbreak of an epidemic?

Millions of vaccines went unused, and people from other countries who needed them could not get them. “Later, when rich nations donated 78 million doses for use in poor ones, the health agency could not deploy them because it was bogged down in negotiations with vaccine companies over liability and costs.” Also, not everything was the fault of the World Health Organization; some of it was the vaccine companies. “Vaccine companies use slow 60-year-old technology, diagnostic tests are cumbersome, and virologists know too little about which mutations are the most dangerous.”

Did the World Health Organization handle the swine flu outbreak well? I give them credit. They did a good job at getting the virus identified and getting seed strands vaccine makers. When you are dealing with something like an epidemic I would prefer an over-reaction by the World Health Organization to an under-reaction. Is there a right way to respond to an epidemic? Probably, but the World Health Organization did their best, with our best interests in mind. I don’t think they deserve to be criticized.

This article can be found at

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/health/policy/11flu.html?_r=1&ref=health

Measles

Measles

We have all heard about the measles outbreak and how it is connected to vaccines but this article, called "Measles Case Leads to Mass Vaccination" talks about the dangers of the new idea that vaccines cause diseases like autism and it also discusses how dangerous a case of mealses can be.

The woman who got measles had worked in a busy office building in the Back Bay. She was a short term worker who had never been vaccinated for mealses and they believe that she contracted it through travel to another country. She thought that she had the flu so she went to a crowded community health center in Roxbury where they confirmed that she had measles.

What made her case so alarming was that she was exposed to a large amount of people. If she had contracted the disease through traveling, she would have been on a plane, where air is circulated and she would have been in busy airports for a long time. Then it was discovered that she traveled on the T to go to and from work, where she would have been exposed to a lot of people, then she would have been exposed to all of the people working in her office. The amount of people that could have been exposed to measles made it scary to people, especially to parents who have decided to not vaccinate their children.

There has been a lot of talk about how vaccines could be linked to diseases like autism which is the cause for the movement that we have been seeing lately. Parents who do not vaccinate their children are putting them at a great risk. If there was no vaccine to measles, there would have been a lot more than a few cases but the scary part is that if there was another outbreak of a disease that parents have not vaccinated their children for, it would be tragic.

http://http//www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/02/24/measles_case_leads_to_mass_vaccinations/?page=1

The Importance of Vaccinations

Deborah Huso's article, "Boston Measles Outbreak Points to Importance of Vaccination", posted on AOL Health on March 3, 2011, talks about how important it is to be vaccinated and continue to receive vaccinations in light of the arrival of measles in Boston. It talks about how an increasing number of patients are choosing not to get their children vaccinated because of the belief that vaccines for the measles, along with those for the mumps and rubella, cause autism. Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum, a clinical medicine professor at the University of Cincinnati, says, "Measles are very contagious and they can be transmitted from person to person very easily." He goes on to say that it is transmitted in the same way influenza it spread, as we learned in class, from droplets from coughing or sneezing. Despite the parental concern of autism stemming from the vaccine, Dr. Fichtenbaum says that vaccine rates are still strong.

The article really drives home the point that by not being vaccinated people are placing, not only themselves, but also everyone around them at risk. There have already been two confirmed cases and three suspected cases of measles. Even though the disease was almost eradicated and is uncommon in the United States, the fact that it is back is very scary and it is important for people to be wary. Over 20,000 children died from measles before vaccines were available and the fact that people are putting their children, and other people, at risk of catching it is also scary. "I think the key question is: how many people could be affected?" says Dr. Fichtenbaum. He says that 20 cases is enough to be considered an epidemic in the United States.

With measles running rampant through the Boston area, it is very important for people to keep up on their vaccinations. Not getting vaccinated just seems silly since the disease is extremely easy to catch and spread. I think it is very important for people to keep themselves protected against the disease. One interesting point of the article was the mention of children receiving immunizations before they begin school and also before college. Most of us are going to be going to college in the fall, and I think we would all feel better knowing that none of our new friends are going to spread measles of some other disease to us. Vaccinations are an important part of modern medicine and not getting them puts you at an unnecessary risk. It was also interesting that parents were able to not vaccinate their children, because I thought kids had to have certain immunizations before they were able to be enrolled in school. It is also interesting that parents would not vaccinate their children due to a myth of autism being a result of the vaccinations. They would be willing to risk something like measles spreading to their child to avoid something like autism, which isn't even proven to stem from vaccines.

The article can be found at: http://www.aolhealth.com/2011/03/03/boston-measles-outbreak-vaccination/

To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate? Which option is more dangerous?

The article, “The Dangers of the Antivaccine Movement,” was written by Meredith Melnick on February 24, 2011.  The article was published on the TIME Magazine Website and can be found at: TIME Magazine: Dangers of Antivaccine Movement.  This article is about the debate on vaccination against infectious diseases and it includes an interview with Dr. Paul Offit, author of the book, Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All.  In recent years, there has been an increase in doubt surrounding the vaccination on young children.  Some parents fear that vaccination causes brain damage or diseases like autism.  Dr. Offit believes that it is not the vaccine itself that is a danger, but the ignorance and fear surrounding the vaccine.  Offit argues that vaccination has been successful and had a major, positive impact on the world since the Smallpox Vaccine.   The problem is, Offit says, “we’ve been through this before, but apparently are failing to learn from history.”  He understands why people fear vaccination, but he also feels as though it is his duty to educate people and let them know that vaccines are in fact safe and cause more good than harm.

This article was on the subject of a fairly controversial issue.  Dr. Offit understands that vaccination can be seen as “violent” and he understands that it can be scary when a person is not properly informed.  Dr. Offit gave many great examples of the history of the fear of vaccination, but he also made a point to emphasize the positive impact that vaccination has had on the world.  For example, he talks about Smallpox.  Thanks to vaccination and eventually inoculation, Smallpox is not longer a disease that we have to worry about. 

Dr. Offit was also sure to give examples of how not vaccinating children can be dangerous.  He speaks about a community in California that decided not to vaccinate, resulting in a whooping cough epidemic.  The examples he gives relate to what we have studied in class.  We have studied diseases such as Smallpox and Influenza.  These are diseases that we do not consider dangerous today thanks to vaccination.  However, if people refuse vaccination it is possible that the world could return to its former state of outbreak of epidemic disease after outbreak of epidemic disease.  This is a scary thought; perhaps more scary than the fear of vaccination. 

I agree with Dr. Offit’s ideas.  Vaccines have been around for a long time, and for the most part they have had a positive effect on the world.  There is no scientific proof that autism is linked to vaccination, so that is not a valid concern.  In my opinion, the valid concern is the possibility that infectious diseases could arise again if vaccination stops.  It is necessary to educate people and help them understand that getting vaccinated is safe and a smart decision.  Dr. Offit concludes the interview with a similar idea by saying, “there is this thing in us that compels us to instinctively help our neighbors. I think we have a societal instinct to protect the people around us.”  The solution is not to stop vaccination; it is to educate people involved in the anti-vaccination movement.

Scientist Killed by Benign Strain of the Plague

The article in question (Plague Death Came Within Hours, Spurred by Scientist's Medical Condition) was written on February 25, 2011 by Tom Randall and can be found at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-25/plague-kills-u-s-scientist-in-first-laboratory-case-in-50-years-cdc-says.html.

Bacteria are truly remarkable in the ways they can proliferate, even when they have been supposedly "weakened" to the point of being considered harmless. A scientist describes the harmless strain of the plague as "like having a lion, where we took out all of it's teeth and claws," where the plague's teeth and claws were it's proteins. That was not the case in which a scientist studying this supposedly harmless strain was killed by it. This was because of the rare case that Dr. Casadaban had a rare disease called hemochromatosis, in which there is an abnormal buildup of iron in the body. Yersinia Pestis feeds on iron to survive and can accomplish this by using it's own proteins to break down bulk in the body to get to it. Because iron was so readily available in his body, the bacteria did not have break down excessive bulk to acquire it, therefore the lack of proteins in this particular strain was negligent in this unique situation.

A lesson learned from the fate of Dr. Casadaban is that you can never be too careful within the laboratory. While he did follow all safety procedures and the risk of dying to a neutered strain of the plague was improbable, this event may lead to a revision in safety protocols in studying bacterial strains. In fact this strain was considered so safe, the fact that he was working with it was not noted when he was checked into the hospital which is just unbelievable. This is also an especially interesting case because this very genetic adaptation (hemochromatosis) helped many people in the days of when the black death was so deadly to survive it by offsetting it's symptoms. Bacteria can be unpredictable, especially when there are many factors that we cannot determine nor diagnose readily. We have seen new ways to possibly improve the field of medicine with IBM's new supercomputer, WATSON, which will be able to more accurately diagnose certain medical conditions. Until then however, we'll have to make do.