►January 11, 2004 - E-mails show state sought military's help with vaccine - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "Georgia Division of Public Health officials were so desperate to buy flu vaccine last month that they contacted Fort Stewart in search of extra supplies, according to division correspondence obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Meanwhile, department officials were barraged by local health officials desperate for more vaccine and peppered by e-mails from salesmen hawking the vaccine at exorbitant prices."

►January 7, 2004 - Have you had your flu shot? - USA Tody - "Flu vaccines, lowly and unloved staples of public health, have never looked so good...With an earlier-than-usual flu outbreak that has been at epidemic levels for two weeks, demand for the vaccine has exceeded supply for the first time."

►The 1st International Neonatal Vaccination Workshop - CDC/NIP - conference alert - March 2 - 4, 2004 - Hilton McLean Tysons Corner Hotel, McLean, VA

►January 11, 2004 - Rotarians will hold fund-raiser for polio - World immunization by 2005 is the goal - The Times-Picayune via www.nola.com

►January 11, 2004 - Muslims' fears pose barrier to fighting polio in Nigeria - The Boston Globe

►January 11, 2004 - India, US to step up efforts on AIDS vaccine - The Times of India

►January 10, 2004 - CM to inaugurate Pulse polio day - The Imphal Free Press via www.kanglaonline.com

►January 12, 2004 - Nigeria blamed for spread of polio - The New York Times via www.theage.com.au - "Polio has spread to two more countries in west Africa, further jeopardising the World Health Organisation's goal of wiping out the crippling disease by 2005...WHO officials are placing the blame squarely on Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and home to 300 of the new polio cases in last year, nearly half the world total...The chief obstacle is opposition to immunisation by some Islamic leaders in northern Nigeria. They say the vaccine contains hormones that sterilise girls, Dr Heymann, who strongly disputes the contention, said."

►January 10, 2004 - The 2004 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule - American Family Physician via http://i-medreview.subportal.com

►January 11, 2004 - SARS fears lead to rush for flu shots - The Japan Times

►January 9, 2004 - Tragic mum's plea for rare bug vaccine - The Mercury - "The first time Stacey Harper heard of pneumococcal disease was a few minutes after her seven-year-old son died...Jacob, her only child, lost his life to streptococcus pneumonia septicemia less than six hours after arriving in hospital."

►January 6, 2004 - India set to emerge as major hub for vaccine production - Kerala News - "Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general N.K. Ganguly said here Tuesday the number of major vaccine producing countries in the world had shrunk from 36 to six due to various factors, including globalisation."

2003 - Polio eradication in India - letter to the editor - journal article (Indian Pediatrics) - "Wild poliovirus elimination can not be achieved by the end of year 2003. The Committee is trying to raise false hopes. There are many cases where children have developed polio even after taking more than 8 doses of OPV(2). Unless reasons for vaccine failure are found, and appropriate remedial measures taken, wild virus elimination can not be achieved."

►January 8, 2004 - OPINION:The controversy over the polio vaccine - Vanguard Online - "The oral polio vaccine is one of the safest vaccines ever produced."

Comment: Well, maybe that just about says it all.  A polio vaccine that causes polio is "one of the safest vaccines ever produced".  (Which is why it is no longer recommended for use in the United States and many other places.)

►January 8, 2004 - Lone flu shot gives kids limited benefit - Officials say one dose still better than none. - www.news-leader.com - "Until more studies are done, federal health officials say they won't know how much protection a child has with only one dose of flu vaccine...'We had parents extremely upset with us,' Hamburg (of Doctors' Hospital clinic) said . 'People were disappointed and we were disappointed. But we feel it was better to get one dose into some people even if they didn't get a second vaccine.'"

Comment:  Who is the public to believe - the local official reassuring the public that one dose is better than none, or the federal official who says no one knows?  And why did the newspaper make it seem in its title as if "officials" all agree?  Why didn't they say "some officials"?  Regardless, as usual, until and unless studies are conducted comparing the vaccinated (using varying doses) to the never vaccinated, and exposing them (or not) to the flu, little to nothing is known about the effectiveness of the vaccine or the doses needed to provide that effectiveness.

►January 10, 2004 - County considers tax raise - The News-Gazette - "The Champaign County Board is expected to decide later this month whether to put a proposal on the November ballot to enact a countywide tax of up to 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to provide services for the county's 1,700 developmentally disabled residents."

Comment:  This sort of thing can be expected to become commonplace given the burgeoning disabled population.

►January 7, 2004 - Immune System Attack Tied to Birth Defects - A new study bolsters the case for folic acid supplements in women of childbearing age. - HealthDay Reporter via www.healthcentral.com

►January 7, 2004 - From the heart: Dad speaks out on autism - Raises awareness among medical personnel - Owings Mills Times

►January 11, 2004 - Government scientists warned watchdog of salmon safety risk - Food agency told of poison fears last year … but ignored advice - Sunday Herald, UK

►January 8 & 9, 2004 - Schafer Autism Report

►January 6&7, 2004 - Schafer Autism Report

►January 11, 2004 - Polio Cases in West Africa May Thwart W.H.O. Plan (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Polio has spread to two more countries in West Africa, further jeopardizing the World Health Organization's goal of wiping out the crippling disease by next year, an official of the agency said Friday...The health organization has come tantalizingly close to reaching its goal, having reduced the number of new polio cases to the lowest level since it began its program in 1988 to eliminate the disease. The W.H.O. said there were 667 paralytic cases in 2003, about 1 percent of the number in 1988."

►January 19, 2004 - Smallpox mixes make a stir - Virus Research - www.usnews.com - "Cleaning out the freezer usually turns up old stuff that's been long forgotten. That holds true even for the supersecure freezers that safeguard vials of deadly smallpox virus deep within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. A recent inventory unearthed unusual chimera viruses created 40 years ago by crudely combining smallpox with other pox viruses...To many public-health experts, it's disturbing enough that plain old smallpox lives on, albeit under lock and key, at the CDC and a second lab in Russia. Now the World Health Organization's committee on smallpox research is grappling with what to do about strange variants of the deadly virus."

►January 11, 2004 - Moms with HIV encouraged to breastfeed - www.startribune.com - "'You can't just say, "Don't breastfeed." That's a death sentence for many babies. Fine, they won't get HIV, but they will die of diarrhea,' said Jean Humphrey, who heads Zvitambo, a research project funded in part by Canada that examines HIV and breastfeeding in Zimbabwe."

►January 19, 2004 - The good news about prions - www.usnews.com - "Last month's discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S. food supply has elevated prions from an obscure biological curiosity to topic A on the talk shows. But just as these villainous, twisted proteins are becoming notorious, researchers are saying: Hold up; they might not be so bad after all. Indeed, prions and their cousin proteins may prove to be benign--even helpful--in normal mental functions like memory."

►December 8, 2003 - When the Body Attacks Itself - Autoimmunity: Rates of immune disorders like Crohn's and MS more than doubled in 40 years - Newsweek via MSNBC - "

Comment: Note that the New York Times reported that "many of us are not receiving enough infections", as well as that "the final consequence of all of this, according to the theory, is that — maybe — those who grow up in less hygienic, less germ-free and less vaccine-punctured environments have substantially lower rates of an array of autoimmune and allergic diseases like multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, asthma and eczema."  For more on this, go to: Scandals: Prescription For Disaster - Is Vaccine Policy A "House of Cards"?

►January 11, 2004 - Warning over link between deodorants and breast cancer - The Guardian, UK

►January 11, 2004 - 3rd Suspected SARS Case Emerges in China Province (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times

►January 10, 2004 - The Growing Mandate for Clinical Preventive Medicine - American Family Physician via http://i-medreview.subportal.com - "The potential to save lives and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans through clinical preventive medicine is tremendous. In their classic paper, McGinnis and Foege1 linked one half of the mortality in the United States from the 10 leading causes of death to lifestyle-related behaviors...One of the key strategies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to improve the health of Americans is to focus on improving five of the lifestyle factors identified. They are tobacco use, overweight/obesity, lack of physical activity, substance abuse, and irresponsible sexual behavior."

►March 27, 2003 - Environmental Factors in Autoimmune Diseases Workshop (archived report) - February 4-5, 2003, Durham, NC

►January 11, 2004 - Researchers prevent spread of flesh-eating virus - Israel21c

►January 11, 2004 - Immune system treatment may help psoriasis - Alameda Times-Star

►January 8, 2004 - Pa. wants pledge from doctors - Physicians will have to stay in the state for a year in return for help in paying their Mcare assessment. - AP via The Philadelphia Inquirer

Comment:  I should hope so.

►January 11, 2004 - Health bosses grow as nurses, staff disappear - The Sun Herald

►January 7, 2004 - Demand for Herbal Remedies Threatens Plants - Study - Reuters via ABC News - "Worldwide demand for herbal remedies is threatening natural habitats and endangering up to a fifth of wild medicinal plant species which are being harvested to extinction, a leading science magazine said on Wednesday...A study to be published later this year by the conservation organization WWF warns that between 4,000 and 10,000 plants may be at risk."

►June 16, 2003 - Why We Strive for Status - Science is revealing the biological roots of men's persistent one-upmanship - Newsweek via MSNBC

►January 10, 2004 - Homeopathy: introduction - The long established complementary therapy comes with a royal seal of approval. But does it work? - www.timesonline.co.uk

►January 19, 2004 - You Will Start to Feel Very Sleepy ... And you should go to bed, becasuse shortchanging your rest can hurt your health - Newsweek via MSNBC

►January 11, 2004 - Going natural not always the best way - Molecular structure is what counts in a substance, not ancestry - (freelance article) The Gazette via www.canada.com - "Now repeat after me: 'The properties of a substance depend on its molecular structure and not on its ancestry; whether the substance is synthetic or natural is totally irrelevant when it comes to assessing effectiveness and safety.'...I bring this up because the belief that 'natural is better' is so widespread, and sooo wrong! A thousandth of a milligram of botulin toxin will kill an adult. And it's perfectly natural! Scorpion venom, cocaine, nicotine, morphine and a myriad of other naturally occurring substances are remarkably toxic as well. They are not toxic because they are natural; they are toxic because their molecules just happen to interfere with some aspect of body chemistry."

*Note:  Starting December 10, 2003 news will be posted in the "daily news" pages based on when it was posted on this website, not by publication date.