It was predictable that they would make a blanket charge that information parents use is erroneous. - SM
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August 6, 2001
“A Shot in the Dark”
San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfgate.com) (08/05/01) P. C6; Torassa, Ulysses
According to pediatricians, the deaths from meningitis
that have appeared in the media recently have prompted some parents to request
the meningococcal vaccine for their children along with the other vaccines they
are getting. Dr. Eileen Aicardi, a pediatrician
who practices in San Francisco and Mill Valley, Calif., says that the highly
publicized meningitis cases in Ohio and California this year have caused many
frightened parents to request the meningococcal vaccine. The vaccine is normally recommended only for
military recruits, college freshmen living in dormitories, and for people
traveling overseas. The downside to
getting the meningococcal vaccine is that it protects against only four of the
five strains of the disease, and it is very expensive. The fifth strain of the disease, strain B,
accounts for at least 33 percent of all cases.
And some parents are deciding not to get their children vaccinated at
all. According to Loring Dales, chief
of the immunization branch at the California Department of Health Services in
Berkeley, Calif., there has been a small but significant rise in the number of parents
filing for exemptions under California’s immunization law. In many cases, parents are often prompted to
do so because of erroneous information they have come across on the Internet, and
the trend is causing considerable concern among doctors and health
officials. [The quadrivalent
meningococcal vaccine available in the United States is also recommended for
control of serogroup C meningococcal disease outbreaks and for use among certain
high-risk groups, including people two years of age and older with terminal
complement component or properdin deficiencies and those with functional or
anatomic asplenia.]
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