LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that a pro-life group, Children of God for Life, is calling on the Medical Profession to “just say no” to the newly US licensed aborted fetal vaccine, Pentacel, made by Sanofi Pasteur. On June 26th the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the vaccine be added to the immunization schedule for children, despite the fact that moral alternatives have been used in the US for years.

My Take?

HealthDay News has a great reminder for parents about their children going barefoot.

My Take?

WebMD is reporting the FDA approval of a new five-in-one vaccine. This is great news as it will mean fewer shots are needed to protect babies and toddlers from potentially dangerous or fatal infections.

The vaccine is named Pentacel and it’s the first combination vaccine to protect children against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) infections. Hib infections include meningitis and pneumonia.

My Take?

Here are my takes on some of today’s health headlines, including one that is, in my opinion, being blown way out of perspective:

Mercury teeth fillings may harm some: FDA

Silver-colored metal dental fillings contain mercury that may cause health problems in pregnant women, children and fetuses, the Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday after settling a related lawsuit.

Natural infection with certain viruses can weaken the immune system. So when children are infected with one virus, they can’t fight off other viruses or bacteria as easily. 

This happens most notably during natural infection with chicken pox or measles. Children infected with chicken pox are susceptible to certain bacterial infections (MRSA or flesh-eating bacteria, for example). 

Children infected with measles are more susceptible to bacterial infections (resulting in sepsis) of the bloodstream. 

But vaccines are different.

It is true that natural infection almost always causes better immunity than vaccination. In fact, only the Hib and tetanus vaccines are better at inducing immunity than natural infection.

Natural infection causes immunity after just one infection, but vaccines usually create immunity only after several doses over a period of time.

The Myth - Infants are too young to get vaccinated.

The Truth - It’s very important to make sure that infants are fully immunized against certain diseases by the age of six months.

Despite what is often falsely reported in the media and at many scaremongering web sites, all recommended vaccines are extraordinarily safe. 

When you consider that the 3.5 to 4 million children born every year in the United States receive more than twenty different vaccines to protect them from at least eleven different preventable diseases by the time they are six years old, and that some of these vaccines have existed for more than fifty years, I think you’ll agree that the record of vaccine safety in this country is remarkable.