vaccines

[Guest guest]

just wanted to forward

 

Read below why kids SHOULD be vaccinated......this is actually evidence based!

 

Ruti

 

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----- Forwarded by Ruth Goldenberg/CA/KAIPERM on 06/01/2009 04:20 PM -----

KP-Office-of-the-CEO

05/29/2009 02:08 PM Please respond to

KP-Office-of-the-CEO

 

 

To

cc

Subject Celebrating Our Vaccination Research

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear KP colleagues,

 

One of the real dilemmas of modern parenting is the decision of whether or not

to have your children vaccinated.

 

Vaccination has transformed public health. Ridding the world of epidemics from

several highly contagious and deadly diseases has probably had more positive

impact on the health of the general population than anything other than clean

water.

 

So getting kids vaccinated used to be a simple declaration of support for the

health of your kids and the health of the entire population.

 

It used to be a " no-brainer. "

 

Now, it's a dilemma for quite a few parents.

 

Why is that true? It's true because there are theories in some public settings

that vaccinations might possibly have unintended negative consequences for some

children. Some parents fear the mercury based preservatives that used to be

used in vaccines –- but haven't been used since 2001.

 

Those theories either aren't supported by research, or have been researched and

proven to be wrong, but some people don't believe the research. Parents, as a

result, are forced to weigh the potential medical risk to their child of these

theoretical, unintended consequences –- with the potential risk of their child

getting whatever disease they could be immunized against if they choose not to

use the vaccine.

 

For a number of reasons, a growing number of parents are choosing not to

vaccinate their kids. Some of the parents who don't vaccinate their kids also

believe that if just about all of the other kids in a community are vaccinated,

it is much less necessary to vaccinate their own child –- because we will have a

" herd immunity " to the disease based on most kids having the vaccine.

 

Is that true? What are the risks of refusing the vaccine?

 

No one knew.

 

Until now.

 

Kaiser Permanente just did some research into one of the main

vaccination-prevented diseases –- whooping cough. Whooping cough is a serious

and often damaging disease. It can be fatal.

 

A growing number of parents have chosen not to have their kids vaccinated for

that disease. So our researchers used our database to figure out whether those

kids benefited from herd immunity or whether they were at a higher risk for the

disease.

 

It turns out, those kids are at risk. They are, in fact, 23 times more likely

to get whooping cough. One in 20 unvaccinated kids gets the disease. One in

500 vaccinated kids gets the disease.

 

So we now have actual numbers for one vaccine. We have shared those numbers

with the world. More then 500 hundred media outlets around the country and

around the world ran that story about our research this week.

 

It was a lead Google News story and it led WebMD and National Public Radio this

week. Associated Press, ABC News.com, Reuters, HealthDay, USA Today, MedPage

Today, U.S. News & World Report and the Baltimore Sun all ran the story.

 

Again, that story was an example of where Kaiser Permanente had enough data and

enough access to data –- and a large enough patient population –- to do research

that will now become part of the medical science database for the world.

 

So this week I am celebrating our research team who hit another home run.

 

This is information that can help parents make good and better informed choices.

 

Thank you researchers.

 

Be well.

 

George