When it comes to public health, nothing beats vaccination!

[16 November 2007 - 12h19]

Whooping cough, polio, tetanus… A new American study, with figures to support it, has now confirmed that systematic vaccination of infants gives more than satisfactory results in terms of public health. Including the vaccine against hepatitis B that has been so discredited in France!

Sandra W. Roush and her colleagues at the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sifted through data (number of cases, mortality rates) relating to 13 registered diseases in the United States prior to 2005: mumps, smallpox and diphtheria, whooping cough, measles and German measles, haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), tetanus and polio, chickenpox, hepatitis A and B and pneumococcal infections. The authors then compared this data with that provided from 2006 onwards, that’s to say after the introduction in the United States of compulsory infant vaccination against all these diseases.

The result is conclusive. Since the end of 2006, cases of diphtheria have fallen “ by more than” 99%. The same positive results have been noted for measles and German measles which have dropped by 99.9%, for polio (- 100%) and chickenpox (85%).

The statistics relating to mortality are just as impressive. In one year, the death rate for chickenpox fell by almost 82% across the whole of the United States. A drop of 25.4% has also been noted in invasive pneumococcal infections.

And last but not least, there is hepatitis A and B. Mortality rates from hepatitis A have fallen by 86.9% and from hepatitis B by 80.2%. A fact that should give pause for thought to those in France who remain unconvinced – France is the only developed country where this is the case – about vaccinating children against hepatitis B. This attitude dates back to a rumour circulating in France in the late 1990s which claimed that this vaccination was responsible for causing multiple sclerosis (MS). Although repeatedly disproved by scientific data, the rumour continues to circulate in French homes… and among certain doctors too, to the great displeasure of the WHO. As a result, vaccination coverage against this disease is now very low among school students, varying between just 33% and 42%.

Source : JAMA, 2007 ; 298 (18) : 2155-2163

>> Cet article est aussi disponible en français

© 1996-2012 Destination Santé SAS - All Rights Reserved. No information contained on this server can be reproduced or retransmitted without prior written consent of Destination Santé. Offenders will be prosecuted in consideration of articles L 122-4 and L 335-3 of the Code of Intellectual Property, allowing up to two years' imprisonment and a 150,000 euros fine.