In early 2015, an outbreak of Zika virus, a flavivirus transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, was identified in northeast Brazil, an area where dengue virus was also circulating. By September, reports of an increase in the number of infants born with microcephaly in Zika virus-affected areas began to emerge, and Zika virus RNA was identified in the amniotic fluid of two women whose fetuses had been ...
Preterm birth is defined as the birth of a baby before 37 completed weeks (term gestation is between 37-40 weeks). Over the past decade, preterm births have risen by more than 30% and in 2011, they accounted for 12.5% of all births, according to data published by March of Dimes. This is a steady increase from 8% before 1980 and 10.4% in 2002. To put this in real numbers, the Centers for Disease Control reports that more than half a million babies are born prematurely every year. That is, for every 7 babies born at term, there will be 1 baby that is born prematurely. What’s more, prematurity is most frequent in African American and Hispanic women as well those that are economically disadvantaged.
The vaccine story will never end. The problem is not that vaccines do not benefit, sometimes, but that there is no hard scientific evidence that all vaccines do so. On the other hand, there are no studies to investigate the long-term consequences from these genetically engineered virus particles that stimulate our immune system to generate antibodies; such antibodies attack our own proteins because they confuse them with the genetically engineered viral proteins. Pediatricians, despite their good intentions, need to spend more time in the library to look for scientific evidence that vaccines are safe and beneficial before they start behaving the way they do, pushing vaccines to children as if they were lollipops. The truth is, there is not such evidence.
