Dec, 30, 2013 – Vaccine History

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ANCHOR LEAD: JUST HOW EFFECTIVE ARE VACCINES AT PREVENTING DISEASE? ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS

Vaccines are responsible for reducing the number of cases of infectious disease by over 100 million since their use became widespread, a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found. The study looked at eight reportable diseases before and after implementation of immunization and calculated
this number, which many experts think is an underestimate. Redonda Miller, an internal medicine
expert at Johns Hopkins, offers her opinion.

MILLER: The message I take away is vaccination works, it’s that simple. Unfortunately we get caught up in the day to day in our physician’s offices, our patients do the same, looking at well no one I know has had measles for the last 10 years, if you look back, we’re talking the last century, and look at these numbers, it is impressive and I think adds great impact to our vaccination programs :24

Urban myths have recently caused more parents to avoid vaccinations, and many serious infections are coming back, data shows. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.