Vaccine Safety

Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrambled Thursday to reassure the public that childhood vaccines were safe after news spread that an agency had acknowledged a link between a child's autism and the shots she received as a toddler. "Our message to parents is that immunization is life- saving," Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, the CDC's director, said at a hastily convened conference call with reporters. "There's nothing changed. . . .

Just two years after the discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, clinical trials for a vaccine are underway in the United States. SARS first broke out in China in November 2002 and had killed 774 worldwide by July 2003, according to the World Health Organization, before being brought under control. The National Institutes of Health launched the first U.S. trial of a SARS vaccine in mid-December. The vaccine is being tested on 10 healthy volunteers who will be followed for 32 weeks.

The number of autistic children in California has exploded during the last decade, according to a new state survey released Thursday. The survey, conducted by the state Department of Developmental Services, concludes that there were 11,995 autistic children enrolled in the department's 21 regional programs in 1998, a 210% increase compared with the 3,864 enrolled in 1987.

A government-sponsored study of two measles vaccines, begun in 1989 during a major U.S. epidemic and conducted on nearly 1,500 minority infants in Los Angeles, failed to disclose to parents that one of the vaccines was experimental, federal health officials said Sunday. "A mistake was made," said Dr. David Satcher, director of the Atlanta-based federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the study sponsors. "It shocked me."

An experimental AIDS vaccine developed by a small, little-known Connecticut firm has become the first to receive government approval for testing in humans, a usually reliable trade publication reported Monday. The Washington Drug Letter said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given its approval for a vaccine manufactured by MicroGeneSys of West Haven, Conn., to be tested in clinical trials that will be supervised by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Traveling while pregnant is considered generally safe if the mother-to-be is in good health. But even then, obstetricians and public health officials physicians are quick to offer a long list of caveats and restrictions meant to minimize the dangers to mother and fetus. The best time to travel during pregnancy is the second trimester, from about 14 to 28 weeks, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

A nasal spray appears to be more effective than flu shots in protecting children younger than 5, according to a major study published last week. "It's good news. We need it, we need a new flu vaccine for children," said Dr. Neal A. Halsey, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was not involved in the study.

As U.S. health officials met with British regulators Thursday to learn what caused the loss of half the nation's supply of flu vaccine, attention turned to overhauling a supply pipeline that depends on a dwindling number of producers even as demand is on the rise. The shutdown this week of Chiron Corp.'s factory in Britain because of bacterial contamination exposed the weakness of a system in which only two companies produce flu shots for all of the U.S.

A controversial cervical cancer vaccine that has been only recommended for U.S. residents has become a requirement for all new female immigrants ages 11 to 26, sparking an outcry over the order's safety and cost. "It's outrageous," said Sara Sadhwani, project director for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California. "It seems absolutely premature to mandate this for immigrant women." The requirement went into effect Aug. 1 and will apply to more than 130,000 immigrants a year.

Immunizations are probably responsible for saving more children's lives than any other medical development in the history of this country. Yet, six years after its approval by the Food and Drug Administration, an immunization designed to protect children against varicella--the virus that causes chickenpox--still has not gained complete acceptance.