Van Badham’s vaccine-hesitant pediatrician told her mother she didn’t need vaccines—but at age 17, she almost died of measles. Soon after, as measles made her body forget its existing immunities, she caught chicken pox, rubella, mumps, and whooping cough. She hopes her…
For 30-odd years, tetanus had been an “almost mythical” ailment in Oregon, the horrors of which most doctors had only seen in textbooks. Then in 2017, an unvaccinated 6-year-old boy contracted tetanus while playing on a farm, The Washington Post reported.
Yet another study has debunked the link between autism and measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations. The findings, published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, further refute vaccine skepticism fueled by a small, decades-old study now expunged from medical…
Vaccination, writes Masha Gessen, is a basic political issue because its success hinges on community agreement—and vaccine refusal is a political act.
Anti-vax backlash is building across the US—and across the globe—as measles cases climb, The Washington Post reported.
Measles infections are projected to double this year compared to 2018, hitting rich and poor countries alike, the WHO reported yesterday. The UN is calling on member states to close vaccination gaps as far-flung measles outbreaks spread.
The Taliban has said it will not target a door-to-door polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan—but the program still faces another obstacle: communities who don’t trust the drugs. Tony Birtley's interviews with rural residents illustrate the challenges for polio workers…
This is a story about my best friend’s mother and my mother’s best friend. One died from cervical cancer. One survived.
After claims of severe side effects derailed a human vaccine for Lyme disease in the 1990s, researchers set their sights on a vaccine developed for mice. Lyme-causing bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi is primarily carried by ticks—some 50% of which acquire bacteria after biting…
At least one good news story came out of the World Economic Forum, which wrapped up in Davos, Switzerland, last week. Gavi, which launched in Davos in 2000 to get subsidized vaccines to those most in need, estimates it has helped immunize ~700 million from diseases…
