Useful Resources
Vaccines
February 01, 2010
Vaccines are often cited as one of medicine's greatest accomplishments. From the first smallpox vaccine in the 1790s to the human papilloma virus vaccine in 2006, vaccines have stopped the spread of infections worldwide, including dreaded polio disease. Researchers now are investigating vaccines for non-infectious diseases, such as certain cancers. Although there have always been deep-seated fears about immunizations, controversy persists over the safety of childhood vaccines, with some parents fearing a link to autism. Dozens of scientific studies have found no evidence for any such link. Yet the fears continue, leading to declining immunization rates in some communities. As a result, there have been sporadic outbreaks of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, which dismays public health experts. Updated March 2010.
Resource Links
Research
This academic center studies and develops vaccines and vaccine research on a variety of diseases, from SARS to the flu.
This U.S. Health and Human Services site provides information about federally-funded research, as well as links to various government vaccine programs.
Guidance for Consumers
From the well-regarded Mayo Clinic.
The NNII is an affiliate of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Academy of Family Physicians, among others; includes background on vaccine science and policy and a section for parents.
Provides basic information about vaccine schedules, new research and press releases.
Statistics and Trends
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration maintains a database on all adverse events cause by vaccines.
This U.S. Centers for Disease Control Web site provides national immunization statistics.
Advocacy
Autism Speaks incorporates an advocacy group, a research arm, fundraising for autism research and a group that advocates for alternative treatments. The group has drawn criticism because the daughter of the founders, a mother of an autistic child, promotes the scientifically-unproven theory that vaccines cause autism.
This non-profit group, named for the developer of the oral polio vaccine, promotes advances in international vaccine development, delivery and distribution, focusing on polio, rubella, rotavirus, and hookworm.
Founded in 1982 by parents whose children were injured or died following adverse reactions to diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccinations, the group advocates greater federal oversight over vaccine safety and opposes mandatory vaccinations for school entry. Critics consider it to be a powerful anti-vaccination advocacy group.
Public Policy
CBER, a division of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, regulates vaccine products.
Provides incentives to develop drugs for diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States.
In 1988, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act created this injury compensation program to address victims who were injured or killed by their reactions to vaccines. In 2008, the program awarded compensation to a Georgia girl whose father, a neurologist, claimed vaccines aggravated her mitochondrial disorder, resulting in autism-like symptoms. This inflamed the autism-vaccine controversy.
The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics provides news, perspectives and resources about vaccine policies and practices.
Understanding Vaccines
The National Institutes of Health presents information discrediting the purported link between vaccines and autism.
This well-researched Web site was developed by the Smithsonian Institution.
A good place to start for basic information about vaccine schedules, new research and press releases.
This Web site, run by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, offers a good overview of childhood vaccines.
