Should children have to get mandatory vaccinations to attend school?

Last year, a study published in the Journal of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons examined extensive data on vaccines in children. The astonishing conclusion: Children who receive just three vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal are 27-times more likely to develop autism, compared to children who get vaccinations containing no thimerosal.

The one bit of good news here is that parents can request thimerosal-free flu shots for their kids. The bad news is that they'd best do it right now because the number of immunizations without thimerosal will be limited and will even need to be special ordered by doctors who don't keep it on hand. The cost of the non-thimerosal shot will be considerably higher as well. Sounds a little crazy, doesn't it? Your child can have a normal flu shot, or - for a slight additional charge - they can provide a SAFER shot with one of the toxins removed. So… which would you like? With-toxin or without?

Like the shingles vaccine, for instance. If you're over 60 and you had chicken pox as a child, you're vulnerable to a virus that may be lying dormant in the roots of nerves, ready to surprise you with a particularly painful resurgence. So why not roll up your sleeve for the shingles shot? Well, for one thing, the vaccine costs around $150, and some insurance carriers might not cover that. And for another thing, you can help prevent shingles with a vitamin supplement.

Yeah, but…how can you make money by giving away vaccines? Turns out, it's pretty easy. You sell the vaccines to individual states, and then the states provide the vaccines for free. Nice one!

in.reuters.com...

They include ascariasis, the most common human worm infection. It is caused by a parasitic worm that lives in the intestine, and infected just under 4 million people in 1974 according to the last survey, in the South and Appalachia.

Toxocariasis, a roundworm parasite transmitted in dog droppings, infected up 2.8 million poor black children living in inner cities, the South and Appalachia, Hotez said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates these roundworms, which can cause intestinal illness and blindness, infect up to 14 percent of the U.S. population.

Strongyloidiasis is caused by a threadworm that lives throughout the body and infects 68,000 to 100,000 people. It may cause a hyper-immune reaction in some people.

Cysticercosis caused by the pork tapeworm and giardiasis, a diarrheal illness caused by a one-celled parasite, are also common, Hotez said.

One threat to babies is cytomegalovirus, which infects 27,002 newborn annually, causing deafness and mental retardation.

"It's amazing what we tolerate," Hotez said. He noted the United States spends $1 billion a year preparing for outbreaks of diseases that have not occurred, including smallpox, anthrax and avian influenza.

"But these (other) diseases are occurring among voiceless people," he said. "It's an unintended form of racism in a sense. We need to make these disease household words."

Chagas disease, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, infects as many as 8 to 11 million people in Latin America and may become a U.S. threat, Hotez said. "In Louisiana, almost 30 percent of the armadillos and 38 percent of the opossums are infected with T. cruzi, and a case of Chagas disease was recently reported in post-Katrina New Orleans," he wrote.