Free Republic

Experts from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US are warning that the country is close to a vaccination tipping point: a point where there aren't enough vaccinated people to protect the unvaccinated, leading to deaths that would otherwise have been prevented. A new commentary, written by FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and FDA vaccine regulator Peter Marks, highlights COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus as three diseases where vaccinations are crucial in protecting communities. Measles also gets a mention, with a record number of people no longer getting vaccinated against it. That has meant a number of recent...

A potentially deadly respiratory virus that few people even know exists is surging in Australia, with at least 1,168 people infected last week in NSW alone. Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) can cause upper and lower respiratory disease in all age groups, but it poses a greater danger to young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Though it usually causes a mild infection similar to the common cold - with nasal congestion, coughs, shortness of breath and a fever - complications can lead to bronchitis or pneumonia and can be fatal, especially among those who are immunocompromised, such as...

Respiratory syncytial virus is similar to cold or flu, but patients have trouble breathing and it can cause other severe infections. The sniffles, coughing and sneezing echoing throughout classrooms and offices make it clear the cold and flu season is in full swing. Doctors have noticed one illness in particular, respiratory syncytial virus, has been spreading faster and causing more hospitalizations for children than usual. “In the 35 years I’ve been doing this, I don’t know that I have ever seen RSV come on so strong so early in the season,” Dr. Dan McGee, a pediatric hospitalist at Helen DeVos...

In the span of four months, at least 94 children in 33 U.S. states have developed a devastating form of paralysis with symptoms similar to polio. Some require a ventilator to breathe. And some of the greatest government health minds in the country say they have no idea what’s causing it. At the same time, during the past four months, at least 12 children have died after falling ill with a respiratory virus called Enterovirus D-68 (EV-D68). Again, federal health officials are at a loss to explain the origin of the epidemic. Are the mysterious outbreaks linked? The Centers for...

Unusually high levels of respiratory illness have been reported this week in Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s emergency department, and samples are being sent out for testing to see whether a rare virus might be to blame. “Obviously, it’s a concern,” Dr. Mysheika Williams Roberts, medical director and assistant commissioner at Columbus Public Health, said of the volume of respiratory cases. “What we are experiencing is unusual for us this time of year.” Last week, respiratory symptoms were the chief complaint of an average of 52 patients per day in the hospital’s emergency department. From Sunday through Tuesday of this week, respiratory...

The virus causes symptoms like a cold, except worse, and is prompting up to 30 children a day to seek care at one Kansas City hospital, where about 15% of the youngsters were placed in intensive care, officials said. In a sign of a possible regional outbreak, Colorado, Illinois and Ohio are reporting cases with symptoms similar to the same virus and are awaiting testing results, according to officials and CNN affiliates in those states. In Kansas City, about 450 children were recently treated at Children’s Mercy Hospital, and at least 60 of them received intensive hospitalization, spokesman Jake Jacobson...