Hot Topics - Vaccine-related issues - Disease in general, including chronic disease/emerging disease

Hot Topics - Vaccine-related issues - Disease in general, including chronic disease/emerging disease/public health/health care in general

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The Topics: *Alternatives *Big pharma *Big trouble *Conferences *Conflict of interest *Diseases and their vaccines *Legal/political *Miscellaneous *Research  *Vaccine-related issues

Vaccine-related issues - Disease in general, including chronic disease/emerging disease/public health/health care in general

March 1-7, 2004

►March 3, 2004 - Animal Diseases Threaten Humans - Atlanta Journal-Constitution via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►March 3, 2004 - Emerging Illnesses "The New Normal" - The Cox News Service via www.intelihealth.com - "The numerous outbreaks of previously unrecognized diseases that occurred during the past two years were no anomaly, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Sunday evening: They are a 'new normal' for which governments are not yet prepared."

Comment:  What, if any, role my vaccination play in the emergence of new diseases?  For more on this, go to Scandals: Changing Disease Epidemiology Via Vaccines - Are We "Robbing Peter To Pay Paul"?

►March 2, 2004 - Health experts laud the old-fashioned quarantine (requires registration) - Knight Ridder via The Charlotte Observer - "The best hope for stopping epidemics of infectious diseases, public health experts said Monday, may be a long-neglected tool: quarantining people...When modern medicine couldn't come up with antibiotics, vaccines and effective treatments against the contagious respiratory disease SARS last year, Canada and Asia dusted off quarantine laws and isolated more than 200,000 people. That stopped the disease."

 ►March 2, 2004 - Study: Anti-Bacterial Soaps Don't Deliver - AP via The Herald-Sun 

February 23-29, 2004

►February 20, 2004 - New system helps predict disease spread, aids control efforts - www.vidyya.com

►February 24, 2004 - U.N. disease early warning system proves its worth - Reuters via www.signonsandiego.com 

►February 19, 2004 - U.S. Worried by HIV Trends in Heterosexuals - Reuters via Yahoo! News 

►February 24, 2004 - Piercing Upper Ear May Cause Infection - Oregon Outbreak Underscores Danger of Upper-Ear Piercing; May Result in Hard-To-Treat Infections - AP via ABC News

►February 23, 2004 - Tracking disease could save lives, money, UC study says - AP via The Sacramento Bee

►February 22, 2004 - Deadly human diseases often arrive via animals - Global travel, conditions in food processing, exotic pets cited in new strains - The News Journal via The Detroit News - "The danger of these diseases to become pandemics often has been exaggerated, some scientists said. Even so, scientists and health officials cannot ignore the possible danger."

►February 24, 2004 - Alaska Vulnerable to World Health Woes - Anchorage Daily News via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►February 23, 2004 - 'Safe sex' fatigue cited for increased disease rate - Syphilis cases reach the highest level in 12 years - Most patients blame infection on unprotected sex - The Toronto Star

►February 22, 2004 - Public health campaigns 'are a waste of money' - The Independent, UK - "The Department of Health is spending millions of pounds on public health campaigns without any evidence they actually work, an official report will conclude this week."

►February 23, 2004 - Massachusetts doctors advocate needle exchange - The state medical society says programs help limit the spread of disease. - www.ama-assn.org

February 16-22, 2004

►February 20, 2004 - Predators And Human Health: Exploring The Role Of Predators In Keeping Pathogens At Bay - Ecological Society Of America via www.sciencedaily.com

►February 18, 2004 - Meanwhile: Echoes of panic over global disease - International Herald Tribune - "These 1838 remarks might cause us to ask whether in the age of SARS and bird flu alarms it is not time to subject the statements of certain virologists, headline writers and health bureaucracies to critical analysis by those trained in other disciplines."

Comment: Interesting article.

►February 12, 2004 - Child's Ear Piercing - Take Precaution - Doctors Warn Parents To Take Precautions When Getting Their Child’s Ears Pierced At An Early Age - www.healthnewsdigest.com - "The joys of having a new baby are endless. When a baby girl is born, many parents opt to dress her in pretty clothes and pretty jewelry. But piercing a baby’s ears at too young an age can be dangerous. 'Most parents are unaware of the potential health risks of piercing their child’s ears before the first immunizations,” says Ken Gottesman, attending pediatrician at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan. “I see more and more babies at younger ages who come in with pierced ears, their parents unaware that they could potentially develop bacterial infections, tetanus or even hepatitis B.'”

►February 16, 2004 - Effects on our health - http://thestar.com.my - "PREVENTING the emergence of infectious diseases is only one of the many benefits of biodiversity for human health. The degradation of natural ecosystems contributes to the spread of infectious diseases, said Dr Jeff McNeely, chief scientist of IUCN-World Conservation Union at a side event at COP-7...Dr McNeely said deforestation in Africa is playing a massive role in the spread of ebola among gorillas and chimpanzees, and that the disease can easily be transferred on to humans. He also said there should be more investigations into links between biodiversity and the recent rise in incidents of avian flu before countries implement massive culls of wild bird populations."

February 9-15, 2004

►February 15, 2004 - Journey of discovery - When she asked experts to crystal ball-gaze about the future of our biggest killers, Donna Chisholm found it's a case of the more we know, the more we need to find out. - Sunday Star Times via www.stuff.co.nz - "The story of health research in the past 20 years has been peppered with words such as 'breakthrough' and 'cure'...In the story of the forecast for health research in the next 20 years, the excitement is somewhat muted...Replace breakthrough with a glacial shuffle, cure with complexity...Forget magic bullet - in many cases, we're still trying to figure out how to fire the gun."

Comment:  But question what is known and/or beneficial about vaccines, and you are labeled by many as a fanatic.   ►February 13, 2004 - CDC's 18th Annual Chronic Disease Prevention Conference Feb. 18-20 - press release - conference alert - CDC via US Newswire

►February 13, 2004 - Fight chronic illnesses with a good disease management strategy: Balaji - www.channelnewsasia.com

►February 12, 2004 - Infectious disease deaths up sharply in China - Infectious diseases claimed 6,474 lives on the Chinese mainland last year, up nearly a quarter on figures for 2002. - People's Daily, China

►February 9, 2004 - Drug Company Attacks Developing Nations' Diseases - AP via The Tampa Tribune - "Victoria Hale is chief executive of the ultimate oxymoron: a nonprofit drug company...From her office in San Francisco, she hopes to wipe out diseases that plague developing nations but are ignored by Western drug companies for lack of profit possibilities...Hale's prescription is to gain marketing rights to promising drug candidates that are owned by drug companies but sit undeveloped in labs."

►February 10, 2004 - Making Us (Nearly) Sick - A Majority of Americans Are Now Considered to Have at Least One 'Pre-Disease' or 'Borderline' Condition. Is This Any Way to Treat Us? - (requires registration) - Washington Post

Comment:  How does this compare to the pre-vaccine era? 

January 26 - February 8, 2004 (2 weeks combined due to illness)

►February 4, 2004 - Science ties illnesses to your month of birth - March is the cruellest month, with a long list of diseases - The Ottawa Citizen via www.canada.com

January 19-25, 2004

►January 24, 2004 - New infectious diseases will continue to emerge  - journal article (BMJ) - "Dozens of new infectious diseases are likely to emerge over the next 25 years unless humans acquire an ecological perspective on infectious diseases rather than seeing microbes as simply an invading entity that should be blindly attacked with antibiotics or used as a tool for biological warfare, a conference was told last week."

Comment:  Note that there was no mention of possible problems with using vaccines  to "blindly attack" microbes.  This is particularly telling in light of the recent admission that 'the virus has to change to escape that immunity...' in reference to the development of antibodies to a particular virus.

►July/August 2003 - Three reasons to return to traditional diets - In the 1930s US dentist Weston Price travelled the world to study the diets of 'primitive' peoples. He found a startling lack of disease and proof that a system of environmentally-friendly local food production is the best way to ensure human health - www.infochangeindia.org

►January 19, 2004 - Century of research confirms impact of psychosocial factors on health - Question is how to apply that knowledge to healthcare systems - American Psychological Association via  www.eurekalert.org

►January 21, 2004 - Seoul set to intensify fight against animal diseases - The Korea Herald

►January 19, 2004 - Death In The Air - CBS/AP via www.cbsnews.com - "A 19-year-old British woman died Monday on board a Virgin Atlantic flight from Miami to London's Heathrow Airport, the airline said...A day earlier, two passengers on a British Airways flight from Miami to Heathrow died, including one from suspected viral meningitis."

January 12-18, 2004

►January 13, 2004 - Study blames obesity for rise in disabilities - CNN

►January 2004 - Incoming AAP President Johnston outlines goals for the coming year - (registration required) - In a special Q&A, Infectious Diseases in Children spoke with Carden Johnston, MD, about the coming year and challenges facing pediatricians. - Infectious Diseases in Children

►January 2004 - Scientists have 14 challenges to conquer - (registration required) - The science community has 14 medical challenges to focus on as part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. - Infectious Diseases in Children

►January 14, 2004 - New threats to health predicted - The Guardian, UK - "'We should not be surprised if the microbial world responds if it wishes to survive,' Prof McMichael said after addressing a Royal Society conference in London. 'In the 1970s, eminent people were saying it was the end of the infectious disease era. We now find after the experience of the 1980s and 1990s we are sadder and wiser.'... He said that injudicious use of antibiotics had created opportunities for microbes to develop resistance, while 'hyper-hygienic' living in developed countries might explain the rise of asthma and other auto-immune diseases."

Comment:  For more on this, go to Scandals: Changing Disease Epidemiology Via Vaccines - Are We "Robbing Peter To Pay Paul"?.

January 5-11, 2004

►January 8, 2004 - Florence's Medicis To Be Exhumed - Discovery Channel - "No fewer than 50 members of the family that dominated the Florentine Renaissance are to be exhumed in the attempt to unveil their last secrets, Italian authorities have announced...The project, to be filmed by The Learning Channel, aims to reconstruct how the Medici family, who ruled Florence and Tuscany from 1434 to 1737, lived and died."

►January 10, 2004 - The Growing Mandate for Clinical Preventive Medicine - American Family Physician via http://i-medreview.subportal.com - "The potential to save lives and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans through clinical preventive medicine is tremendous. In their classic paper, McGinnis and Foege1 linked one half of the mortality in the United States from the 10 leading causes of death to lifestyle-related behaviors...One of the key strategies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to improve the health of Americans is to focus on improving five of the lifestyle factors identified. They are tobacco use, overweight/obesity, lack of physical activity, substance abuse, and irresponsible sexual behavior."

►January 8, 2004 - Pathogens maketh man (requires registration) - BioMedNet - "The infectious activity of pathogens over the centuries has left an indelible mark on the human genome, report evolutionary biologists...Now, protection that evolved against pathogens that blighted human populations hundreds of years ago appears to have evolved into protection against more recent arrivals, such as HIV."

►January 7, 2004 - Satellites to Monitor Epidemic Diseases - Economic Times of India via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract) - "The system uses Geographical Information Systems and mathematical modeling to map disease locations."

►January 9, 2004 - Safe Water Handling Key in Controlling Cholera - While a safe water source is important to prevent the transmission of cholera, a recent outbreak in the Marshall Islands shows that handling and storing the water safely is also critical. - Reuters via www.planetark.com

►January 8, 2004 - Bug Speak - Scientists are finding that communication among bacteria is a vital part of their life. As this ScienCental News video reports, their new findings may lead to development of new ways to fight infections. - ScienCentralNews

►January 7, 2004 - International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases - American Society for Microbiology via www.eurekalert.org

►January 6, 2004 - Medical miracles for common killers just around the corner - The New York Daily News via www.billingsgazette.com

►January 2, 2004 - Potential For Pathogens To Evolve Missing From Emerging-disease Models - University of Washington via ScienceDaily - "Tracking the evolution of pathogens is not a new concept, but mutations are usually not taken into account in the models used to assess the emergence of infectious disease."

Comment:  Nor is the role vaccines might play in the emergence of mutant disease.

December 29, 2003 - January 4, 2004

►January 4, 2004 - We all have a stake in promoting vaccination - www.timesunion.com - "This year, several thousand people in New York state -- and 60,000 across the nation -- will die from diseases that we can prevent through vaccination. Polio, measles, rubella and diphtheria, once responsible for killing or harming thousands of children and adults, can be controlled through immunization...We have vaccines for more than 20 diseases. Sadly, despite these advances, thousands die every year from preventable diseases."

Comment:  Would that those who are concerned about death from diseases were equally concerned about death from vaccines.

►December 30, 2003 - Health:- In 2004, health for all remains the goal - Vanguard, Nigeria - "In developing countries like Nigeria, communicable diseases still represent seven out of the 10 major causes of child deaths."

►December 28, 2003 - The Next Generation of Diseases Are in Hiding, Somewhere (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times

 

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DISCLAIMER:    All information, data, and material contained, presented, or provided here is for general information purposes only and is not to be construed as reflecting the knowledge or opinions of the publisher, and is not to be construed or intended as providing medical or legal advice.  The decision whether or not to vaccinate is an important and complex issue and should be made by you, and you alone, in consultation with your health care provider.