Vaccination reduces illness. Again.

We’ve known for more than half a century that childhood vaccines dramatically reduce illness.  The proof keeps coming!

An article published in Pediatrics (the AAP journal) in September 2014 follows the rate of hospitalization for pneumonia among children in Stockholm, Sweden.

Before 2007, hospitalization for pneumonia was common.  But in 2007, a vaccine to protect against a bacteria called pneumococcus was introduced.  Since then, childhood hospitalization for pneumonia has dropped by two thirds, a dramatic success.

In my practice, I’ve also noticed a dramatic reduction in milder infections, such as ear infections and sinusitis, since the pneumococcal vaccine was introduced.  There has been some bacterial resistance to the vaccine, but overall the number infections has dropped.

Score another success for universal vaccination!  Click here to read the article’s abstract.

—  David Epstein MD