The National Immunization Surveys (NIS), sponsored by CDC, are a group of surveys used to monitor immunization coverage across the country. The Child National Immunization Survey assesses data for children, ages 19-35 months of age. Data from 2015 were released earlier this month. For 2015, the NIS shows that Arizona has reached the Healthy People20/20 [...]
Immunization gives parents the safe, proven power to protect their children from 14 serious and potentially deadly diseases before they turn two years old. To celebrate the importance of immunizations for a healthy start and throughout our lives, and to make sure children are protected with all the vaccines they need, we continue to join [...]
For the last several years global public health has been coming down the home-stretch to eradicate Polio from the globe - making it the 3rd infectious disease to be eliminated - joining smallpox and rinderpest. Polio incidence has dropped 99% in the last 20 years…going from 350,000 cases in 1988 to only 279 cases so [...]
Maybe you heard news reports this week about kids in California with a “polio-like syndrome.” Here's a synopsis: Over the last 18 months, 5 kids have been identified by California’s Department of Public Health with a paralysis in one or more limbs. Multiple tests have been run on them. Poliovirus wasn't found, but enterovirus-68 was isolated in 2 of the cases. There are hundreds [...]
Throughout human history, war and political unrest have been associated with the spread of disease, often called the “third army”. During the Napoleonic wars, 8 times more people in the British army died from disease than from battle wounds. In our Civil War, 66% of the 660,000 deaths among soldiers were caused by pneumonia, typhoid, [...]
National Immunization Awareness Month gives us a great opportunity to talk about the need to improve national immunization coverage levels. Vaccine-preventable diseases are becoming increasingly rare in the US because vaccines are effective, but that doesn’t mean we should stop vaccinating. Even though most infants and toddlers have received all recommended vaccines by age 2, there [...]
As I’ve mentioned in past updates, global efforts to eradicate polio through widespread immunization campaigns have been incredibly successful. Back in May of this year, only three countries still had endemic polio cases – Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Unfortunately, for the first time since 2007, wild poliovirus cases are again being reported in Somalia. Currently, [...]
Today is World Polio Day so I thought I’d throw together this post to give you an update on where we are in the global eradication effort. 2012 has been a good year so far- as the global public health system has made some real progress. This year we’re down to only 3 countries with [...]
Public health efforts eradicated smallpox from the globe in the late 1970s. The last naturally occurring case was in Somalia in 1977 (followed by a couple of lab accident cases in 1978). Public health’s sites have been set on Polio eradication for the last couple of decades. We got close a couple of times, but [...]
Public health efforts eradicated smallpox from the globe in the late 1970s. The last naturally occurring case was in Somalia in 1977 (followed by a couple of lab accident cases in 1978). Public health set its sites on Polio next- with an expectation that it could be eradicated before the turn of the century. A [...]
