In Japan, a special investigation is being launched by the
Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry into the recent fivefold increase in the
number of adults infected with measles. The number of adult cases reported
between January and March this year was 172, compared with 33 cases during the
same period in 2000.
According to sources, the ministry intends to create a team
of pediatricians and other medical experts to examine solutions to the problem.
The National Institute of Infectious Disease reports that
the number of adults aged 18 and over with measles during the January to March
period of this year increased 5.2 times over last year, while the number of
children infected during this period rose 2.5 times over last year. The total number
of people coming down with measles is expected to increase even more during the
peak measles seasons of spring and summer.
The team put together by the ministry intends to collect information
on the total number of people aged 18 and over who contracted measles, their
record of vaccination, and how the disease affected patients by selecting
cities in Japan with populations of approximately 1 million people and studying
them for three years.
All truth goes through three stages. First it is
ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as
self-evident. (Schopenhauer)
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ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"