►March 2, 2004 - Vaccinating children protects adults as well - American Society for Microbiology via www.eurekalert.org - "Since the approval of a vaccine against pneumococcal bacteria for young children in 2000, there has not only been a drop in the incidence of severe disease caused these bacteria in children but also a significant decline in the disease in adults. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report their results today in two studies at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases...'We were pretty confident when we recommended this vaccine for children it would help them,' says Cynthia Whitney, a researcher on both studies. 'What was a pretty pleasant surprise was the amount of benefit we've seen in unvaccinated populations.'"

►March 2004 - The Impact of Reminder-Recall Interventions on Low Vaccination Coverage in an Inner-City Population - journal article (Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine)

►March 2004 - Childhood Immunization Rates Before and After the Implementation of Medicaid Managed Care - journal article (Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine)

►February 27, 2004 - Alliance Sets Goal to Increase Child Vaccinations - Reuters via Yahoo! - "The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and The Vaccine Fund, its financial arm, hope to raise $400 million annually from governments and private sources to immunize 30 million children against diseases such as polio, hepatitis and yellow fever...'Our goal is to allow every child, everywhere in the world access to immunizations,' Jacques-Francois Martin, the president of The Vaccine Fund, said at the London launch of the campaign."

►February 27, 2004 - Alliance Sets Goal to Increase Child Vaccinations - Reuters - "An international alliance launched a campaign on Friday to save the lives of one million children by 2006 by increasing access to immunizations in the world's poorest countries...The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and The Vaccine Fund, its financial arm, hope to raise $400 million annually from governments and private sources to immunize 30 million children against diseases such as polio, hepatitis and yellow fever...'Our goal is to allow every child, everywhere in the world access to immunizations,' Jacques-Francois Martin, the president of The Vaccine Fund, said at the London launch of the campaign."

►February 24, 2004 - Chickenpox Vaccine Found to Fade in a Year (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Although no vaccine is ever 100 percent effective, some authorities see the findings as highlighting a potentially serious problem. If chickenpox becomes less prevalent, fewer unvaccinated children will contract it. That vulnerability follows them into adulthood, critics say, and it increases their chances of suffering severe complications if the disease does eventually strike...Adults whose childhood immunity has worn off will also be in trouble, said Barbara Loe Fisher, co-chairwoman of the National Vaccine Information Center...One solution, experts say, is to combine the chickenpox vaccine with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, known as M.M.R., usually given around the same time. That would mean that children would receive a second, or booster, dose of varicella vaccine, because M.M.R. is administered twice."

Comment:  The problem re: vulnerability of adults is also relevant to other so-called "vaccine-preventable" diseases, including measles.  For more on this go to Scandals: Playing With Fire - It's Not EASY To Fool Mother Nature

Comment: For another perspective on so-called "herd immunity" go to Scandals: Is the theory of "herd immunity" flawed?

►February 17, 2004 - AAEP 2003: Comparative Efficacy of Vaccines - www.thehorse.com - "Very little scientific research has been done in the way of comparing the effectiveness of equine vaccines. However, several researchers have been hard at work over the past few years trying to determine if any particular U.S.-registered equine vaccines had advantages over others. It turns out that the serologic responses to--and protection given by--these vaccines varies significantly."