Vaccines: What Everyone Needs To Know

Description: Immunization is regarded by many as one of the greatest advances in modern civilization. The widespread use of vaccines has led to increases in life expectancy, reductions in the occurrence of childhood diseases, and is generally credited with saving millions of lives annually. But since their discovery two centuries ago, vaccines have been dogged by pockets of persistent distrust among those who are skeptical of their science or who find compulsory immunization at odds with personal liberty. The rise of these voices in contemporary culture has contributed to trends of vaccine delay and vaccine hesitancy in some communities - a chasm between the general population and the scientific establishment that has persisted and grown at times across the last several decades. VACCINES: What Everyone Needs to Know (R) offers a scientifically grounded overview of the science, manufacture, and culture of vaccines in the United States and internationally. Aiming to offer an unbiased resource on this hotly debated subject, it provides accessible, authoritative overviews of the following: * How vaccines work * The history of vaccines * Vaccine policy - who writes it, and does it matter? * The contents and manufacture of vaccines * Vaccine injury * The alleged link between vaccines and autism * Vaccines and new outbreaks Written by a leading authority in both infectious disease and vaccine education, this book offers a clear-eyed resource for parents or anyone with an interest in the use, efficacy, and controversy surrounding vaccines. In a subject area defined by partisanship, it offers reliable resource for what everyone needs to know.

Review: Life has been made immeasurably better by the sharp decline in the incidence of infectious diseases, an improvement made possible through inoculations, especially of children, which protect people from contracting diseases and have led to the elimination or near elimination of maladies such as smallpox and polio. Yet public wariness of vaccines persists and has even in some cases increasedperhaps, ironically, owing in part to the decline in disease incidence produced by vaccines. This useful, fair-minded, and extremely informative book explains how vaccines are produced and how they work; discusses the diverse reasons behind some parents hesitancy to inoculate their children; explores the prospect of employing vaccines for not only preventing but also curing some diseases, including AIDS and even some cancers; and examines the potential for the total elimination of particular diseases, such as measles. * Foreign Affairs *

Contents: SECTION 1: VACCINES AND IMMUNIZATION: BASIC PRINCIPLES 1. What is a vaccine? 2. A brief history of vaccines 3. How are vaccines developed? 4. Vaccine financing: who pays for all of this? 5. How is vaccine safety monitored and ensured? SECTION 2: THE IMMUNIZATION SCHEDULE 6. Immunization schedules SECTION 3: VACCINE POLICY: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES 7. Laws and Standard Practices for Vaccine Administration 8. Vaccine Hesitancy SECTION 4: FUTURE DIRECTIONS 9. Vaccine development 10. Vaccines in the Developing World 11. Disease eradication SECTION 5: APPENDIX Childhood, Adolescent and Adult Immunization Schedules Current Adult Schedule

Author Biography: Kristen A. Feemster, MD, MPH, MSHP, is a pediatric infectious diseases physician and health policy researcher at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the implementation of immunization recommendations, the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases, and vaccine policy. She is Director of Research for the Vaccine Education Center and Medical Director of the Immunization Program at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Dr. Feemster has authored numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and invited commentaries and regularly provides vaccine education to a wide range of audiences. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two children.