http://healthytrust.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-combo-vaccines-for-kids.html
New combination vaccines for infants and toddlers approved Thursday by the
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will soon appear in doctors'
offices in Chicago and across the country.
And parents are sure to have a lot of questions.
Moms and dads will want to know if giving babies a single shot containing
protection against four or five infections could be dangerous. Might it
overwhelm an infant's immune system and are adverse side effects more
likely?
Don't worry, says Dr. Tina Tan, a pediatric infectious disease specialist
at
Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
The new vaccines are as safe and effective as individual vaccines already
on
the market, she adds, and combining existing immunizations into a single
shot doesn't raise the risk of harm.
"It's not going to overload your infants' immune system," the physician
says.
"If you think about what you or I or a baby is exposed to every day in the
environment, you are being challenged by more antigens [proteins] than you
get through these vaccines," Tan explains.
But others are concerned.
"There are too many unknowns here; I'd like to see more research on the
effects of combining so many vaccines at once," said Anne Dachel, a member
of the board of Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury
Poisoning.
She and others suspect a link between thimerosal - a mercury-based
preservative once used in vaccines -- and autism. More than 99 percent of
vaccines no longer use the preservative.
But medical experts say research doesn't sup****t that suspicion.
"When you look at the science, there's no evidence that there is any
connection," says Tan, who tells anxious parents that the illnesses
they're
guarding babies against are a much more considerable threat.
The benefit of the new combination vaccines is a reduction in the number
of
shots babies get. Instead of four or five shots per visit at the age of 2
months, 4 months, 6 months, and 15 to 18 months, infants will now endure
one
or two needle sticks.
My Tribune colleague and fellow blogger, Julie Deardorff, notes today that
many parents are alarmed by the sheer number of immunizations kids are now
asked to get.
"In 1982, The Centers for Disease Control recommended 23 doses of 7
vaccines
for children up to age 6," she writes. "Today, the CDC recommends that
children get 48 doses of 12 vaccines by age 6." With flu shots, the total
expands to 69 doses of 16 vaccines by age 18.
Pentacel, manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur, protects again five infections
at
the same time (diopththeria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilus
influenza type B) and was tested on more than 5,000 children.
Kinrix, made by GlaxoSmith Kline, protects against four infections
(diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and polio).
Both vaccines were approved Thursday by the Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices, which advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention on vaccine policy.
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No connection is a blatant and proven lie.
http://www.wnho.net/vaccine_coverup.htm
http://www.generationrescue.org/images/060406.gif
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deirdre-imus/a-timely-truth-untold-aga_b_104711.html
http://www.thecre.com/quality/2005/20050825f_quality.html
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