Health News
- It's Time To Get School-age Children Vaccinated; State Requirements Are In Place For Kindergartners And Rising Sixth Graders
An editorial in the Bowling Green Daily News about the importance of getting your child vaccinated before school starts is applicable to all communities in Kentucky. Health.comState law requires children to be vaccinated upon entering kindergarten, with...
- Belief In Bogus Studies And Stories Undermines Use Of Vaccines That Have Been Proven Safe, Resulting In Spread Of Diseases
UPDATE: Jan. 16, 2014 4:50 Kentucky has not had any reports of measles in the past three years. It has had two cases of mumps in 2013 and two cases of mumps in 2014. Kentucky continues to have a large number of pertussis, or whooping cough,...
- Whooping Cough On The Rise In Kentucky And Nationwide
A resurgence of whooping cough in Kentucky and the nation has officials urging the public to get vaccinated. The state has already had 171 reported cases this year, making it "on track to beat our record from just two years ago," said Dr. Kraig Humbaugh,...
- Avoiding Immunizations On Religious Grounds Is Risky: Bill Moyers
The movie "Contagion" has veteran journalist and commentator Bill Moyers thinking about how fast a deadly disease outbreak can spread, something that can be further propagated by children whose parents have declined to get them immunized on religious...
- Health Officials To Immunize Child-care Workers For Whooping Cough, Which Is Making A Comeback
Amid a rash of whooping-cough cases, Northern Kentucky health officials will immunize child-care workers against the disease. The effort is to help stop the infection, also known as pertussis, from spreading, Peggy O'Farrell of The Kentucky Enquirer...
Health News
Rural states with declining immunization rates have increasing incidence of whooping cough
In the state that once had the highest immunization rate, Vermont's medical community is not so proud of anymore. Fewer people are vaccinating their children in the nation?s most rural state, reports Dr. Wendy Mahoney, a private practioner in the state. But Vermont isn't alone. Stories about declining immunization have come in from across rural America, Mahoney writes in the Daily Yonder, and they "come in the midst of a pertussis outbreak the likes of which Vermont has not seen in years, if ever." Pertussis is whooping cough.
Mahoney says she can find one reason for the recent outbreak: a new law in her state, like some in other rural states, that allows parents to exempt their children from required vaccinations "because of a personal, moral, or other belief." Mahoney says many rural residents use the exemption, which she finds hard to fathom in the face of scientific advances that prove that vaccination has ended smallpox, wiped out polio in most of the world, and controlled measles, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, influenza type b and other infectious diseases.
The top map shows the estimated percentage of children enrolled in kindergarten who have been exempted from receiving one or more vaccines in the 2011?12 school year. Comparison with the other map shows that states with large numbers of exemptions are those where whooping cough is making a comeback. (Centers for Disease Control maps)
A comparison between states with low vaccination coverage rates and those reporting higher numbers of whooping cough cases shows some, though not consistent, overlap. (Read more)
Mahoney says she can find one reason for the recent outbreak: a new law in her state, like some in other rural states, that allows parents to exempt their children from required vaccinations "because of a personal, moral, or other belief." Mahoney says many rural residents use the exemption, which she finds hard to fathom in the face of scientific advances that prove that vaccination has ended smallpox, wiped out polio in most of the world, and controlled measles, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, influenza type b and other infectious diseases.
The top map shows the estimated percentage of children enrolled in kindergarten who have been exempted from receiving one or more vaccines in the 2011?12 school year. Comparison with the other map shows that states with large numbers of exemptions are those where whooping cough is making a comeback. (Centers for Disease Control maps)A comparison between states with low vaccination coverage rates and those reporting higher numbers of whooping cough cases shows some, though not consistent, overlap. (Read more)
- It's Time To Get School-age Children Vaccinated; State Requirements Are In Place For Kindergartners And Rising Sixth Graders
An editorial in the Bowling Green Daily News about the importance of getting your child vaccinated before school starts is applicable to all communities in Kentucky. Health.comState law requires children to be vaccinated upon entering kindergarten, with...
- Belief In Bogus Studies And Stories Undermines Use Of Vaccines That Have Been Proven Safe, Resulting In Spread Of Diseases
UPDATE: Jan. 16, 2014 4:50 Kentucky has not had any reports of measles in the past three years. It has had two cases of mumps in 2013 and two cases of mumps in 2014. Kentucky continues to have a large number of pertussis, or whooping cough,...
- Whooping Cough On The Rise In Kentucky And Nationwide
A resurgence of whooping cough in Kentucky and the nation has officials urging the public to get vaccinated. The state has already had 171 reported cases this year, making it "on track to beat our record from just two years ago," said Dr. Kraig Humbaugh,...
- Avoiding Immunizations On Religious Grounds Is Risky: Bill Moyers
The movie "Contagion" has veteran journalist and commentator Bill Moyers thinking about how fast a deadly disease outbreak can spread, something that can be further propagated by children whose parents have declined to get them immunized on religious...
- Health Officials To Immunize Child-care Workers For Whooping Cough, Which Is Making A Comeback
Amid a rash of whooping-cough cases, Northern Kentucky health officials will immunize child-care workers against the disease. The effort is to help stop the infection, also known as pertussis, from spreading, Peggy O'Farrell of The Kentucky Enquirer...