Brush With Vaccine Preventable Disease

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While we were in the hospital for Jewel's birth someone, or maybe several people, on staff was exposed to mumps (wiki entry). Everyone on the maternity floor, down to the housekeeping staff and the lunch lady, had to wear masks at all times. I was not thrilled. I wondered if the exposure came from someone who was not vaccinated. Who knows, but with a full patient load in maternity and labour and delivery one floor above the potential for an outbreak was, and still is, great. The whole episode reinforced my decision to make sure all of my kids get the recommended vaccines on time.

At any rate, the media seem to be catching on that falling rates of vaccination put the public health at risk.

  • Measles, Once Declared At An End, Makes A Return

  • Jump in US measles cases linked to vaccine fears

  • As Diseases Make Comeback, Why Aren't All Kids Vaccinated?


    • It is interesting, no maddening, to note the comments of those insisting that vaccines cause autism on the Glen Reynolds article. These people have zero evidence for their claims but keep making them anyway despite evidence that their stance compromises the health of child and adult alike. The repeated disparaging of autistic individuals to do it really gets on my nerves. I wonder how many people are going to have to die before people get over their fear of vaccination.


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