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Home Vaccination Concerns

What's the harm in vaccine denial?

Despite their widespread beneficial effects, some people deny that vaccines work, or accuse them of causing various side-effects. This link contains reports of many people who have been harmed by vaccine denial.

Measles deaths tumble by 60% worldwide

"The new figures estimate that, altogether, measles vaccinations have prevented 7.5 million deaths between 1999 and 2005, and 2.3 million of these were attributable to the intensified programme [the international Measles Initiative launched in 2000 by the World Health Organization and UNICEF]…. Ironically, measles deaths are climbing again in some rich countries, such as the UK, because of lingering but unfounded fears that a combined triple vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) causes childhood autism. Chan [Margaret Chan, WHO director-general] stressed that these autism-link fears are groundless, and repeated the WHO's support for the safety of MMR. Prior to the 1960s, before measles vaccines were available, the disease killed an estimated 6 million people each year, globally." New Scientist (19th January 2007) [Ref: The Lancet (vol.369, p.191)]

BCG protects 'more than thought'

The BCG vaccine offers more protection against tuberculosis than experts currently appreciate, say scientists. BBC News (15th October 2005)

Doctors' Impressions of Vaccine Information from CAM Providers

Responding physicians to this survey felt that CAM [Complementary and Alternative Medicine] practitioners dispense poor-quality vaccine information and that patients or their children may remain unimmunized as a result. The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (Fall/Winter 2004-05)

Antivaccination activists on the World Wide Web

Concludes there is a high probability that parents will encounter elaborate antivaccination material on the world wide web. Factual refutational strategies alone are unlikely to counter the highly rhetorical appeals that shape these sites. Archives of Disease in Childhood (2002)

Issues in Immunisation

Fear mongers, organisations, vaccine developments, vaccine effectiveness and vaccine safety.

Vaccines

Collected stories from Bandolier on vaccines and vaccination. (Bandolier is an organisation committed to evidence based thinking about health care.)

WHO: Vaccines

World Health Organization links to descriptions of activities, reports, news and events, as well as contacts and cooperating partners in the various WHO programmes and offices working on this topic.