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May 09, 2007
Pneumococcal vaccine
I haven't dealt with vaccines in general yet, nor many of the specifics. But this tidbit from JAMA April 25 is too good to pass up.
"The vaccines against Hib and pneumococcus seem like a good idea. Those germs are the cause of much childhood disease. Hib (a bacteria) was the most common cause of meningitis, as well as a major cause of epiglotitis, cellulitis, pneumonia, and a host of other infections. Some of these carried a high mortality rate. It seems to make good sense to vaccinate against such a killer. Maybe the death rate has been reduced from 1/5000, or 10,000 to maybe 1/100,000. (I am guessing at those figures.) But it seems to me that other organisms have just risen to take its place." I wrote a few weeks ago.
Now this from JAMA on pneumococcus. The vaccine was 7-valent (it had 7 types mixed together). The incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease caused by these types decreased, as hoped. But other types have increased and are causing almost as high an incidence as pre-vaccine. What else would we expect? Do we really think we can conquer all disease? Won't the death rate still be one a piece?
Clinical Iatrogenesis | By Robert Maddox | 12:53 AM