The Importance of Immunizations

Abstract

It is virtually impossible to overstate the effect of vaccination upon human health, and especially upon child health. And yet controversy seems to swirl around this topic and has since Edward Jenner fi rst inoculated young James Phipps on May 14, 1796, with material from Sarah Nelmes, the milkmaid who had cowpox. Most of the controversies are because, when vaccination is successful, nothing happens. When we prevent a serious illness, nothing happens (ie, no one gets ill). As this occurs more and more, the public eventually has little or no memory of the morbidity and mortality that was caused by serious diseases like smallpox, measles, varicella, and the other vaccine-preventable infections. Dr. Dwight Powell from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, is the Guest Editor of this issue of Pediatric Annals devoted to child and adolescent immunizations. The topics include how to deal with concerns about vaccine safety, issues specifi c to adolescent immunization, infl uenza vaccines, immunizations for international adoptees, the new 13-valent conjugate pneumococcal vaccine, and the business aspects of immunization in the offi ce. All of us who support and provide childhood vaccinations should be aware of the recent landmark decisions of the federal “vaccine court,” a program where claims are decided by the Offi ce of Special Masters, a part of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. As recounted in the article here by Smith and Marshall (see page 476), on February 12, 2009, the vaccine court completely rejected claims that thimerosal and MMR cause autism, and on March 12, 2010 that thimerosal alone causes autism, using very strong language in both instances. On February 2, 2010, The Lancet formally retracted the 1998 paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefi eld and colleagues that fi rst claimed the now disproved relationship between MMR and autism. The General Medical Council of the United Kingdom has found evidence of serious professional misconduct by Wakefi eld and two colleagues, and on May 24, 2010, “struck” Wakefi eld from the medical register, effectively withdrawing his U.K. medical license. These actions should help quiet the false assertions of a vaccine link to autism. I have recently received a copy of the third edition of The Vaccine Handbook: A Practical Guide for