With new vaccines coming fast and furious out of the pipeline at the medical community, it is easy for us doctors to feel overloaded with new information to absorb. So I can only imagine what it must feel like for parents trying to keep up. “The Red Book,” a pediatrician’s bible when it comes to vaccine information, came out in 2006 and we are already giving more new vaccines since that edition was published. So a review of what’s new might be in order.
The goal with any vaccine program is disease eradication. The first disease to be successfully eradicated worldwide was smallpox, which has been gone since 1977.
Wild-type paralytic polio has not been seen in the Americas since 1991.
The congenital rubella syndrome and diphtheria had zero cases reported in 2004.
While that is great news, the danger is that some parents may become complacent — lulled by a false sense of security that rare diseases are no longer threats to our children’s health. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the excellent childhood vaccine program we have in this country is only as good as our ability to educate parents and deliver the shots on time to our kids.
Some of these “new” vaccines are simply the same vaccinations we had before, packaged to minimize the numbers of shots kids get.
An example of this is the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine offered at 12 to 15 months and again on entrance to kindergarten.
Others were designed to give a booster to the adolescent’s waning immunity to certain diseases they were previously vaccinated against. This is the case with the new Tdap vaccine, which boosts a teen’s immunity to pertussis, tetanus and diphtheria.
Meningococcal meningitis, though quite rare, is potentially deadly. The MCV4 is a vaccine offered to teens on entrance into high school and college to prevent this most devastating illness.
Adolescents aren’t the only ones benefiting from the new schedule. Rotavirus is a common bug that can cause severe diarrhea and dehydration in babies.
One in 19 children under 5 will seek medical care for rotavirus infection each year, and one in 72 will be hospitalized. Deaths worldwide from the disease number in the hundreds of thousands. It is worth the three oral vaccines to keep this one in check.
The latest vaccine to hit the market is perhaps the most exciting of all.
A recently licensed vaccine targets four of the more aggressive types of human papilloma virus including types 16 and 18, which account for approximately 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer. HPV causes genital warts, but more importantly, it is the leading cause of squamous cell cervical cancer in women. In clinical trials the vaccine prevented 100 percent of HPV types 16- and 18-related cervical cancer in women who were not previously exposed.
By targeting young girls and women between 9 and 26 years of age, we have the potential to prevent many cases of cervical cancer.
As with any vaccine, there may be contraindications for certain children, so be sure to talk with your doctor. Ask questions. Be comfortable. Be informed. Most importantly, get with the program. The childhood vaccine program, that is!
Stay tuned for part two of this series on vaccinations, where I will discuss myths and fears surrounding vaccinations, including those regarding autism and thimerisol.
Dr. Carolyn Roy-Bornstein is a board certified pediatrician with Merrimack Valley Child and Adolescent Health and Merrimack Valley Hospital. Her office is at Merrimack Health Center, 62 Brown St. adjacent to the hospital. She can be reached at 978-521-8108. Parents are invited to e-mail questions for future columns to CRoy.MVCAH@comcast.net.
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Health Outlook: Goal of vaccines is getting rid of disease
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'American Bandstand' host Dick Clark has died
In this undated file photo released by ABC, Dick Clark hosts the New Year's eve special from New York's Times Square. Clark, the television host who helped bring rock `n' roll into the mainstream on "American Bandstand," has died. He was 82. Spokesman Paul Shefrin says Clark died but did not provide further details. Clark had continued performing even after he suffered a stroke in 2004 that affected his ability to speak and walk. (AP Photo/ABC, Donna Svennevik, File)
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