herd immunity

National Immunization Survey Released by CDC

By |2017-02-10T09:49:10-07:00August 27th, 2015|Preparedness|

This month is National Immunization Awareness Month and we can’t stress enough how important vaccines are to protecting your family, yourself, and those around you. According to the Centers for Disease Control immunizations are one of the top 10 public health accomplishments of the 20th century. The 2014 National Immunization Survey for toddlers was released by [...]

AZ Measles Outbreak Winds Down

By |2017-02-10T09:49:18-07:00February 13th, 2015|Preparedness, Prevention|

So far, there have been over a hundred cases of measles associated with Disneyland (including seven here in Arizona).  We’re  lucky no “third generation” cases have been found here (yet).  Measles can take up to 21 days to develop in a person who has been exposed to the disease, so we’re not out of the [...]

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Vaccines & the Social Contract

By |2017-02-10T09:49:20-07:00January 26th, 2015|Preparedness, Prevention|

At the core - vaccines are really about community protection.  Our public health system depends on a solid network of providers that are available to vaccinate kids for all of the nasty infectious diseases that have plagued humanity for millennium.   It’s not just access to care and a solid network of providers that vaccinate that [...]

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AZ Losing Traction on Vaccine Front

By |2017-02-10T09:49:34-07:00July 21st, 2014|Prevention|

Arizona law requires kids to get certain vaccines in order to attend school unless a doctor signs a medical exemption form or a parent signs a religious or personal belief exemption form.  There’s been an increasing number of parents who are signing personal belief exemption forms- putting herd immunity at risk. Every year we examine [...]

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More Arizona Parents Choosing Not to Vaccinate their Kids

By |2017-02-10T09:49:43-07:00April 11th, 2014|Preparedness|

As I mentioned in a blog post last year, more AZ parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids- using “personal exemptions” when they enroll their kids in school.  This has jeopardized our immunization rates enough that this week’s measles case in Maricopa County could spread.  We’ll know in a couple of weeks. Vaccinating yourself and [...]

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Epidemiologists: Public Health’s Smoke-Jumpers

By |2017-02-10T09:49:43-07:00April 10th, 2014|Preparedness, Prevention|

Like a hotshot team, a rapid response by public health is essential to stopping the spread of measles in unvaccinated persons… and disease detectives in Maricopa County are currently working to squash a measles outbreak right now. Last week a person with measles visited a restaurant, church and airport in Arizona, exposing over a thousand [...]

New Vaccine Exemption Form Being Used this Year

By |2017-02-10T09:50:03-07:00October 28th, 2013|General|

Arizona law requires kids to receive certain vaccines in order to attend school unless a doctor signs a medical exemption form or a parent signs a religious or personal beliefs exemption form.  There has been an increasing number of parents who are signing exemption forms- putting herd immunity at risk in some parts of the [...]

National Immunization Awareness Month

By |2017-02-10T09:50:14-07:00August 9th, 2013|Prevention|

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 [...]

Vaccines & the Social Contract

By |2017-02-10T09:50:48-07:00December 14th, 2012|Prevention|

At the core- vaccines are really about community protection.  Our public health system depends on a solid network of providers that are available to vaccinate kids for all of the nasty infectious diseases that have plagued humanity for millennium. It’s not just access to care and a solid network of providers that vaccinate that are [...]

Run with the Herd

By |2017-02-10T09:51:32-07:00September 30th, 2011|General, Prevention|

Pretty much everybody knows that getting an annual influenza vaccine protects them from getting influenza- but fewer people realize that getting vaccinated saves other people’s lives as well.  That’s because if a large percentage of the population takes advantage of the vaccine (called herd immunity) we can reduce the overall spread of the disease- and save [...]

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