Doctors Wrap Babies In Protective Vaccine Cocoons

[Guest guest]

Gag. Isn't this just so special.

a little-known tactic called " cocooning. "

?????

Sheri

 

 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/185618.php

Doctors Wrap Babies In Protective Vaccine

" Cocoons "

Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines

Article 16 Apr 2010 - 2:00 PDT

Doctors are wrapping babies in vaccine " security blankets " to

protect them from disease in a little-known tactic called

" cocooning. "

Cocooning is a way of wrapping infants too young to be vaccinated against

pertussis in a blanket of immunity. Pertussis is commonly called whooping

cough because of the distinctive " whoop " gasping sound an

infected patient makes when he or she coughs. Physicians say if the baby

is too young to get vaccinated, the next best thing is to ensure the

people near the baby are healthy. Cocooning vaccinates the baby's mother

and other relatives near the child with the protective pertussis shot,

explains

Texas

Medicine

magazine, the official publication of the Texas Medical Association

(TMA).

This technique is important, physician experts say, because infants are

most likely to contract whooping cough, and it can make them very ill.

Statistics bear that out. The Texas Department of State Health Services

reports that, as of early December, the only Texans who died from

pertussis last year were babies younger than three months old.

Infants are too young to be immunized against pertussis so they stand a

greater chance of getting sick from it. They cannot receive their first

pertussis vaccine until they are 2 months old, and are not fully

protected until they receive multiple doses, usually when they reach 15

to 18 months old.

Health officials have begun cocooning infants in the Williamson County

area north of Austin, due to a serious pertussis outbreak there. Far more

Williamson County residents have contracted whooping cough than the state

average - approximately 185 cases per 100,000 residents in 2009, compared

with fewer than 10 people per 100,000 statewide as of early December.

 

" The goal of the cocooning project is that everyone who comes in

contact with a newborn infant receives a Tdap vaccination, " says

David W. Martin, MD, chief medical officer of St. David's Round Rock

Medical Center in Round Rock, in the heart of Williamson County. Tdap is

the

tetanus

,

 

diphtheria, and pertussis vaccine for adults. The Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention recommends infants receive the first three doses

of the DTaP (child version) vaccine at 2, 4, and 6 months of age.

Children then should receive the fourth shot between 15 and 18 months of

age, and a fifth when they enter school, at 4 to 6 years of age.

In the Williamson County cocooning project, physicians and other health

officials attempt to educate and administer the Tdap shot to mothers who

come to the Round Rock hospital to deliver their babies. The goal is to

teach the mother about the importance of immunization, and to vaccinate

her and others close to the baby.

" We hope to decrease the number of infants with pertussis as a

result of the [cocooning] initiative, " Dr. Martin says. TMA recently

sponsored a cocooning seminar for physicians and nurses at the Round Rock

hospital. (TMA created a video of the program as well, as a teaching tool

for physicians.) TMA also sponsors

Be Wise -

ImmunizeSM, an ongoing public health initiative to vaccinate and

educate people that vaccines are important, safe, and effective.

 

" The response to the cocooning project has been positive. All health

care professionals realize pertussis is a problem in Williamson County

and want to [reduce it], " says C. Mary Healy, MD, who presented the

TMA seminar. Dr. Healy is director of Vaccinology and Maternal

Immunization at Houston's Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine

Awareness and Research. Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston and Parkland

Memorial Hospital in Dallas also have implemented cocooning.

Dr. Healy believes patient education is critical to eliminating the

spread of whooping cough. " Once people find out how serious

pertussis can be and how effective the Tdap vaccine is, they're willing

to be immunized, " Dr. Healy says.

Public health officials in Williamson County are uncertain as to why

pertussis has struck locally. " We really wonder in Williamson County

if we're that much worse than the rest of Texas, or if we're just looking

for it harder, " says Edward J. Sherwood, MD, FACP, chair of TMA's

Committee on Infectious Diseases, and member of TMA's Be Wise - Immunize

advisory panel. " But the case counts are so big in the county that I

have to believe it's a real outbreak, " says the former health

authority for Williamson County.

TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing

nearly 45,000 physician and medical student members. It is located in

Austin and has 120 component county medical societies around the state.

TMA's key objective since 1853 is to improve the health of all Texans.

TMA Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the association and raises

funds to support the public health and science priority initiatives of

TMA and the family of medicine.

Source

Texas Medical Association

 

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

 

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

 

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