An infection prevention and control professional wipes her gloves with a bleach wipe during an ebola virus training in Ottawa.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)
Infectious diseases pose a continual threat to Canadians. Ensuring the population stays healthy requires increasing investment in our public health system.
Despite being so small they can’t be seen with the naked eye, pathogens that cause human disease have greatly affected the way humans live for centuries.
In Australia we still vaccinate against polio, but not tuberculosis. Why, and how do we decide?
from www.shutterstock.com.au
You may not know anyone with an infectious disease covered by the immunizations on the 2017 list of recommended vaccines. Here’s why that doesn’t matter, and why children still need to be protected.
Understanding how the flu virus copies itself could open a way to killing it.
An Ethiopian boy receives a polio vaccination. Africa has done well with polio eradication but lags behind other vaccination efforts.
Unicef Ethiopia/2013/Sewunet
Every year hundreds of thousands of children die from vaccine-preventable diseases. Africa leaders could change this if they improved vaccination efforts.
Parents are sensitive to what they hear about vaccines.
Kevin T. Quinn/Flickr
In light of the newly ignited political debate about vaccines, here in one article are some of the highlights of our vaccines coverage.
A vial of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and an information sheet are seen at Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, February 26 2015.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
The anti-vaccination movement is not the cause of falling vaccination rates. It is a symptom of the public’s growing distrust in the government and the medical profession.
Children in particular experience a multitude of viral illnesses during their early years.
MIKI Yoshihito/Flickr
Viruses cause all kinds of infections from relatively mild cases of the flu to deadly outbreaks of Ebola. Clearly, not all viruses are equal and one of these differences is when you can infect others.
Measles immunization campaign poster display at the Eradicate Measles Exhibit in 1972.
CDC/ Don Lovell via Public Health Image Library
When the measles vaccine was introduced, it was associated with reductions in more childhood disease deaths than were actually caused by the measles. How does that work?
Given the increasing number of vaccines recommended for adolescents and adults in Australia, the newly announced initiatives are a very good idea.
Wellcome Images/Flickr
Tucked away in the budget papers is an intitiative worthy of applause – the establishment of an adult immunisation register and the expansion of the childhood register to include adolescents.
From January, conscientious objectors to vaccine will lose up to $15,000 of childcare and family tax rebates.
Daria Filimonova/Shutterstock
Immunisation programmes have taken a back seat because of Ebola and it leaves countries vulnerable to other outbreaks.
Removing the childcare rebate for parents who do not fully immunise their children is unnecessarily punitive and could have repercussions.
Oksana Shufrych/Shutterstock
Immunisation in Australia isn’t compulsory – and doesn’t need to be controversial. Most Australians recognise the incredible benefits that vaccination provides to prevent serious disease.
Paediatrician, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance; Clinical Lecturer, Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney
Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, and Professor of Neurology, University of Liverpool