Researcher stresses need for immunizations
Dr. Kathryn Edwards, the Sarah H. Sell Professor of Pediatrics and vice chair of pediatric clinical research at Vanderbilt University Medical School, told an April 23 press conference of the continued need to fully immunize children against diseases that are potentially deadly.
Dr. Edwards, a strong proponent of the role of immunizations in public health, was the keynote speaker at the Immunize Kids! Dallas Area Partnership press conference that took place in collaboration with Children's in the Dallas Ambulatory Care Pavilion.
"We have had wonderful successes with vaccination. So wonderful, in fact, that we sometimes forget how bad these diseases are and that they can kill." She stressed that while researchers, vaccine manufacturers and the government "work every day to make vaccines safer and better, what is most important is that children get these vaccines."
Edwards is active in cutting-edge research for potential improvements to current influenza vaccines for both children and adults. She has conducted large-scale efficacy trials of influenza vaccines and has coordinated multicenter trials of H. influenza type b, pertussis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and vaccina vaccines. She is currently studying dose sparing strategies for influenza vaccine and avian influenza vaccines. She also conducts active population-based surveillance to monitor the impact of new vaccines on disease burden and was one of the founders of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) New Vaccine Surveillance Network.
Her visit to Children's was made in conjunction with the annual observation of National Infant Immunization Week (April 19 – 26), an initiative from the CDC to celebrate the tremendous accomplishments of vaccination campaigns and to raise awareness among providers and families of the need to fully immunize infants and children against a host of serious diseases.
Asked about concerns over vaccine safety, she said the potential adverse effects of being vaccinated are small in comparison to the impact of the diseases those vaccines prevent. "In every single example, the disease is far worse than any side effects associated with getting the vaccine."
Statistics from Dallas County show that vaccination efforts are making headway, said Dr. Wendy Chung, the chief of epidemiology at Dallas County Health and Human Services. Current data show 74 percent overall coverage for primary vaccines among children in Dallas County. While that percentage has increased over the last five years, "we are still behind the 90 percent goal set by the CDC to fully immunize children by the age of two."
"We as a community must continue to promote the vaccines recommended by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics to assure that not only every 2-year-old in Dallas County is fully immunized, but also that adolescents receive the vaccines that are recommended specifically for that age group," said Dr. Jane Siegel, a UT Southwestern Medical Center pediatric infectious disease expert on the medical staff at Children's. "Vaccines save lives, suffering and money. Studies done by the CDC indicate that common childhood vaccines will prevent more than 14 million cases of disease, prevent 33,500 deaths over the lifetimes of children born this year and save $10 billion per year nationally."
Dr. Edwards also spoke to the Children's medical staff about influenza vaccine earlier in the morning at Pediatric Grand Rounds. Her talk focused on four areas: the burden of the disease; new information about the evolution of influenza indicating the "mixing bowl" is Southeast Asia, not just China; the effectiveness of current vaccines; and different avenues of research currently ongoing to improve the efficacy of flu vaccines.
From left, Kay Currin, RN, chair, Immunize Kids! Outreach Committee, and Julia Easley, director of Advocacy, watch from the sidelines as keynote speaker Dr. Kathryn Edwards, Vanderbilt University Medical School, discusses the vital importance of fully immunizing infants and children.
