Vaccines are often cited as one of medicine’s greatest accomplishments. From the first smallpox vaccine in the 1790s to the human papilloma virus vaccine in 2006, vaccines have stopped the spread of infections worldwide, including dreaded polio disease. Researchers now are investigating vaccines for non-infectious diseases, such as certain cancers. Although there have always been deep-seated fears about immunizations, controversy persists over the safety of childhood vaccines, with some parents fearing a link to autism. Dozens of scientific studies have found no evidence for any such link. Yet the fears continue, leading to declining immunization rates in some communities. As a result, there have been sporadic outbreaks of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, which dismays public health experts. Updated March 2010.
Advocacy
Founded in 1982 by parents whose children were injured or died following adverse reactions to diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccinations, the group advocates greater federal oversight over vaccine safety and opposes mandatory vaccinations for school entry. Critics consider it to be a powerful anti-vaccination advocacy group.
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This non-profit group, named for the developer of the oral polio vaccine, promotes advances in international vaccine development, delivery and distribution, focusing on polio, rubella, rotavirus, and hookworm.
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Autism Speaks incorporates an advocacy group, a research arm, fundraising for autism research and a group that advocates for alternative treatments. The group has drawn criticism because the daughter of the founders, a mother of an autistic child, promotes the scientifically-unproven theory that vaccines cause autism.
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Understanding Vaccines
This Web site, run by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, offers a good overview of childhood vaccines.
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A good place to start for basic information about vaccine schedules, new research and press releases.
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This well-researched Web site was developed by the Smithsonian Institution.
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The National Institutes of Health presents information discrediting the purported link between vaccines and autism.
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Public Policy
The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics provides news, perspectives and resources about vaccine policies and practices.
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In 1988, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act created this injury compensation program to address victims who were injured or killed by their reactions to vaccines. In 2008, the program awarded compensation to a Georgia girl whose father, a neurologist, claimed vaccines aggravated her mitochondrial disorder, resulting in autism-like symptoms. This inflamed the autism-vaccine controversy.
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Provides incentives to develop drugs for diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States.
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CBER, a division of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, regulates vaccine products.
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