Washington – A federal government program launched 20 years ago to increase vaccinations for low-income children in the United States will prevent more than 700,000 deaths, but measles remains a stubborn adversary, with more than 129 cases so far this year, a federal agency said on Thursday.
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Most of the U.S. measles cases are linked to unvaccinated travelers from abroad, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
The first four months of this year have brought more measles cases than any similar period since 1996, in part because of serious outbreaks in countries such as the Philippines, the agency said. There have been no deaths from the disease reported in the United States this year, the CDC said.
The importation of measles from overseas makes vaccination even more important for children in the United States, the CDC said.
“Borders can’t stop diseases anymore, but vaccinations can,” CDC Director Tom Frieden told reporters.
A national measles outbreak in the late 1980s that involved 50,000 cases and more than 100 deaths prompted the CDC to launch the Vaccines for Children program, which provides free vaccinations to children whose parents and care givers are unable to afford them.
The vaccinations are for a variety of diseases, including measles, mumps, and rubella.
The program will prevent more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years based on estimates of how many illnesses there would had been without the extra immunizations, the CDC said.
The Vaccines for Children program will be expanded under the Affordable Care Act, the CDC said.
The 20th anniversary of the program has, however, been marked by 13 measles outbreaks in the United States so far this year, the largest in California and New York City.
Most U.S. measles patients either had not been vaccinated or were not sure if they had been, the CDC said. Those who had not been vaccinated included patients who opted out of vaccinations because of personal beliefs.
“Because measles can be spread so easily, unvaccinated people become very vulnerable once a disease is introduced,” Anne Schuchat, U.S. assistant surgeon at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters.
Measles from abroad can also infect children who are too young to be vaccinated, she added.
The CDC recommends that starting at age 12 months, infants receive two doses of MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine.
Infants aged 6 through 11 months old should receive one dose of MMR vaccine before international travel.
The CDC tooting its own horn. What else would you expect? The vaccine debate is far from over as more and more anecdotal evidence pours in that so called “safety studies” have been at best inadequate. The reason the evidence remains anecdotal is because most doctors refuse to report many adverse reactions to vaccines on the basis of “there’s no way that’s related to the vaccine,” despite the fact that the VAERS urges such reporting regardless. Which doctor wants to think that every time they insert a syringe in a child there is truly a (even slight) risk of serious injury or death?? So it’s “nah couldn’t be the vaccine; vaccines are safe!” It doesn’t get reported and therefore the data doesn’t show the true danger… Also vaccine safety studies do not use proper scientific methods. Proper methods utilize a control group that is administered a placebo or no vaccine at all. Controls in vaccine safety studies compare new vaccines to other previously introduced vaccines, or they compare complete vaccines (with the antigen) to incomplete vaccines (containing all typical vaccine ingredients but the antigen). These methods do nothing to examine the safety of the non-antigen ingredients, many of which are toxic (chief among them injected aluminum, which is different than ingested aluminum– injected into the muscles gets a back door entrance into the sensitive areas of the nervous system and the brain, giving it opportunity to bypass the body’s main filtering systems.) and have been blamed for the anecdotal harm attribute to the inoculations. Bottom line the data is highly fudged, and an intelligent human being would be skeptical of the medical establishment regarding this topic…
The CDC issued this statement in response to a recent study which blamed the US’s disgraceful (worst in the First World) Infant Mortality (IMR) on vaccines.
The Shanghai study, based on reported pediatric adverse drug reactions (ADRs) for 2009, found that 42 percent were caused by vaccines, with reactions ranging from mild skin rashes to deadly reactions like anaphylaxis and death. Of all the drugs causing adverse reactions among children, vaccines are the most commonly reported.
This study is particularly significant because the vast majority of reports came from physicians, pharmacists, and other health care providers. Less than three percent of the reports were from consumers.
I am a postdoctoral researcher in biochemistry.
Spreading fear is all what some know. When thousands of people in the US were dying a horrible death from Polio each year, no one was debating whether or not to hive. Their child a vaccine. Many virus names we don’t even hear of anymore because they were wiped out do to vaccination. What causes autism? We don’t know. No proof has ever been given that it’s vaccinations. The anti-vac community says “prove it’s not vaccinations” I say prove it’s not the water, or plastic plates. Prove it’s not the MSG in all the kids super snacks. Prove it’s not the food coloring in everything from apple juice to kishka. Worse then living with a child autism, is living with the fact that a child died because you didn’t vaccinate them.
Here’s my question. Why every time I argue this topic, the person defending vaccines invariably states that vaccines have been proven safe and effective by “thousands of studies” and the CDC/FDA/my doctor says….., and then he/she folds her arms in triumphant victory? The very argument IS that those sources are inaccurate because we are dealing with a broken system that has caused those sources to be tainted due to a multitude of factors. That should prompt one to feel the need to become educated in the matter in order to form a real opinion based on the data (whether pro or con) and not regurgitate what others have rubber stamped! Very few people argue factually and just parrot. If I tell you that it’s raining outside, it would be silly for you to say “but the weatherman said it’s sunny” and then feel like you’ve proved me wrong. You would look outside and check the actual weather!