* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download The CDC says that there is not a limit on how many vaccines the
Survey
Document related concepts
Gastroenteritis wikipedia , lookup
Tuberculosis wikipedia , lookup
Neglected tropical diseases wikipedia , lookup
Marburg virus disease wikipedia , lookup
Onchocerciasis wikipedia , lookup
Bioterrorism wikipedia , lookup
Middle East respiratory syndrome wikipedia , lookup
Leptospirosis wikipedia , lookup
African trypanosomiasis wikipedia , lookup
Typhoid fever wikipedia , lookup
Cysticercosis wikipedia , lookup
Poliomyelitis eradication wikipedia , lookup
Anthrax vaccine adsorbed wikipedia , lookup
Poliomyelitis wikipedia , lookup
Meningococcal disease wikipedia , lookup
Eradication of infectious diseases wikipedia , lookup
Transcript
What are the benefits of vaccinations? Infectious disease is one of the more powerful forces on the planet. Deaths from wars has not been nearly so devastating as deaths from disease when you compare them in history. With the exception of surviving a disease, vaccination is the only way to become immune to a disease. It has been man’s greatest conquest. If we did not have vaccines many people would die daily of infectious disease. We don’t have to look back too far in history to see that many people died from diseases such as small pox, influenza, measles and polio before we had vaccines against them. Small pox was the first disease eradicated completely from the planet using vaccinations. It is hoped that Polio will be eradicated in the near future. Are there some that are harmful? There are risks to everything (even driving to the store). Vaccinations have risks. A very small percentage of persons can have allergic reactions to vaccination. This is very rare but possible. Some vaccinations have potential side effects. The Centers for Disease Control on Prevention (CDC) monitors vaccinations before and after they are licensed and evaluates their safety. They will discontinue or change a vaccine if it seems unsafe. The greater the threat of a disease, the higher the benefit of vaccination even if there might be a risk from the vaccine. All healthcare providers weigh the health versus benefit value of vaccinating. An example of this is the Polio. The disease reached its peak in the United States in 1952 with more than 21,000 paralytic cases. An oral polio vaccine licensed in 1955 dramatically decreased polio cases in the United States. By 1960 only 2,525 cases were reported in the United States and 65 in 1965. The last case of wild polio in the US was in 1979. The US used an oral polio vaccine for many years. There was a slight risk that people can develop a condition called vaccine associated paralytic polio (VAPP) and evidence showed that about one in every 2-3 million people would develop this condition. When it became obvious that the risk of wild polio in the US had become very low, the CDC examined the risk vs benefit of the live polio vaccine and decided to discontinue the oral polio vaccine in 2000. An inactivated polio vaccine is now used. How can you educate yourself to better know what the vaccination is? The CDC website is amazing: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/ I also like the Immunization Action coalition website http://www.immunize.org/ What immunizations are required before entering CSU? The state of Colorado requires all students studying on a campus that has on-campus housing show proof of immunity to Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR). The state requires proof of two MMR vaccines or positive blood titers on each of the diseases for everyone born after January 1, 1957. This is similar to the K-12 recommendation in Colorado (except K-12 has many more requirements) and every other state in the US so most students don’t have any problems getting those records. The state does allow for exemptions: medical, religious and personal. If someone has an exemption and we have an outbreak of one of those diseases they will not be allowed on campus until the outbreak is declared over. This happened in about 1990 with measles. Fortunately, most of our students don’t sign exemptions-we discourage it. CSU itself does not have any immunization requirements except for the vet school requiring Rabies vaccines for their students. What immunizations would you personally recommend getting? A current Tetanus-a new Tetanus vaccine was licensed in 2006 that has pertussis (whooping cough) for adults (it’s called Tdap). I would love to see everyone on campus have this because pertussis has been sporadically seen in Ft. Collins and we’ve had a few cases at CSU. It is spread by a cough. Hepatitis B (which K-12 began requiring in 2003), meningitis, HPV for women. I have a whole bunch of vaccines that I recommend for people when they travel. Can you get too many vaccinations at one time? The CDC says that there is not a limit on how many vaccines the body can tolerate at one time and it is better to vaccinate with many then risk that a person won’t return to get vaccinations. There are rules about the timing of vaccines, especially live vaccines. What amount is safe? I mostly try to limit the number of vaccines to a person’s tolerance. I don’t want to make the experience so traumatic that they never get vaccinated again. How many shots can children get in one appointment? Many, see above. Many vaccines now are combinations of many antigens (different diseases) so that hopefully children aren’t getting too many pokes at one time. Does it affect children differently than adults? How? In the first year of life a child may have immunity from its mother and we don’t give live vaccines until after they turn one for that reason (but we do given the inactivated vaccines then because they are not affected my maternal antibodies). Children usually have healthy immune systems and a better immunity formed after a shot. As we age our ability to produce immunity from a vaccination can wane. The CDC is evaluating a double strength flu shot for those over 60 (or 65) because of this reason. Are some vaccinations only appropriate or effective with certain age groups? When vaccines are researched and then proposed to the FDA they have looked at certain age groups. Many times this is related to the age at risk such as the new HPV vaccine being licensed for girls and women from 9-26 because it is aimed at preventing HPV before their first sexual encounter. Vaccines are tested for safety and efficacy in the target age groups before they are licensed. What are the requirements for traveling out of country; why? The only vaccine that is required in some countries is Yellow Fever. This is required in some countries in S. America and Africa and people must carry a stamped card showing proof of this vaccine. There are no other requirements but certainly recommendations. I use the website cdc.gov/travel to see what is recommended in each country. How did you handle the meningitis scare? Communication about how it is transmitted was very important. People get scared and we have two jobs when it happens-to identify who might really have been exposed (in the case of meningitis oral to oral contact) and to educate the public about the disease and how it can be avoided (don’t share saliva). We also heavily promoted the vaccine. The first young girl who died had been vaccinated in 2006 and we (the CDC included) learned that the vaccine is only good for 3-5 years (it had only been licensed 5 years so this was brand new to everyone) so we had to educate people and then provide the vaccine. How has that affected the health center? Since I have been involved in infection control I have worked on several meningitis cases (not to mention many other issues)-this one was probably the most obvious and painful because of the student death. I have always tried to educate the CSU community about meningitis and with the events of the past year the message is being heard more than ever. ...the general student body? I hope that there is not anyone left on campus that hasn’t heard about the risk of meningitis and the vaccine. I am already working on how I’m going to educate the incoming freshman so my job is never done. ...the nurses individually in their work settings? I am exhausted. So is my staff. Do you remember how many mengitis vaccinations were given out? We did about 10,000 at the two clinics in November (I’ve heard the first one, where we did over 7000 was the biggest vaccine clinic ever in the US), in addition CSU Health Network has given another 2000. We still are offering the vaccine for free until the end of this semester. What is the Health Center’s view on vaccinations/prescriptions and the student body? I believe that everyone has the right to choose how they live their life and whether they want to get vaccinations or prescriptions. I think that a health care practitioner’s job is to help educate people to the risk vs benefits of certain medical interventions whether they are immunizations or prescriptions. I have no problem with people listening to my suggestions and they declining if I feel that they truly understand the risks. I hate to see people not get vaccines or treatment based on unfounded fear and inaccurate information. That being said, however, public health only works when we all do what we can to protect each other. While anyone can refuse to get a measles shot and risk getting the disease themselves, they can also spread measles, if they get it, to unvaccinated babies, people who can’t be vaccinated due to immunosuppression, etc. If almost everyone on campus is vaccinated for meningitis then those few who aren’t are less likely to become infected. This is called herd immunity and it is very important in public health.