Vaccines
A new Emory survey finds that Georgia parents continue to trust routine childhood vaccines — including the newborn hepatitis B shot — even as shifting federal guidance fuels confusion.
The Supreme Court wants a lower court to take a second look at New York’s school vaccine mandate in light of the Mahmoud decision. New York is among several states that removed religious exemptions in the face of disease outbreaks.
Many clinicians and epidemiologists fear abandoning the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine could reverse three decades of progress toward eliminating a disease that still infects as many as 2.4 million Americans and kills tens of thousands each year.
They urge vaccinations, masking in crowds, and prompt treatment to prevent complications as the winter virus season picks up.
Universal infant and childhood vaccination against hepatitis B, recommended since 1991, has reduced by 99% the number of reported cases among U.S. children, adolescents, and young adults.
The ACIP is also expected Friday to be briefed on the childhood immunization schedule by a vaccine critic, drawing outrage from U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy. "The ACIP is totally discredited," Cassidy said.
A CDC vaccine advisory committee – whose members were replaced with appointees of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – is scheduled to take another series of votes that could reshape longstanding recommendations to protect babies against the cancer-causing hepatitis B virus.
The hepatitis B virus is transmitted through blood and bodily fluids, even in microscopic amounts, and the virus can survive on surfaces for a week.
The heart of the guidance is not a list of shiny new, expensive programs. Instead, it is a dramatically unsexy push to make health systems more flexible and more anticipatory.
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease that’s particularly dangerous for the youngest infants.
Warning by European health agency about mpox strain notes locally spread cases in Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, and California.
History shows that mandates increase the use of vaccines. Lower vaccination rates will mean increased rates of diseases like measles, hepatitis, meningitis, and pneumonia — and even the return of diphtheria and polio.
The new cases are the first reported clade I infections in the United States that don’t involve international travel, the California Department of Public Health said.
'We are able to give the vaccine now without a prescription. We just have to have a convo with the patient and review the screening form,' said Dr. Johnathan Hamrick, an Atlanta pharmacist.
As HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s dismantling of federal vaccine policy continues to roil the CDC, some Democratic-led states have struck out on their own.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s proposal to add autism to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program could unleash a flood of claims, threatening the program's financial stability.
Although hepatitis B is often associated with behaviors like injection drug use or having multiple sexual partners, health experts note that the virus can be transmitted in ordinary situations too, including among young children.
Last year’s flu season was particularly severe, with the 280 pediatric flu-associated deaths nationwide, a record high, according to the CDC.
From shifting Covid-19 vaccine recommendations and a debate over Tylenol and autism, to declining Covid levels in New York and even a case of eastern equine encephalitis, there’s a lot to sort through.
After the FDA changed its regulations around the Covid vaccine to limit access, New York state crafted a workaround to preserve people’s ability to get a booster. Nonetheless, confusion has reigned in pharmacies across NYC.