I don’t want to go to the doctor

CH&S Netways I don't want to go to the doctor T his is a familiar refrain for a number of parents with children under the age of six. Why, because as most children will tell youÐthe only reason they have to go to the doctor is to get a shot. Shots are a wonder of modern medicine as they are a means of deli- vering vaccines to prevent a host of diseases and illnesses. Yet, this wonder of modern medicine is constantly under ®re due to the balan- cing of risk versus reward, i.e., how many people are going to become ill from the vaccine designed to prevent the disease or what are the number of side effects from the vaccine versus the potential good of preventing mass disease. How many of you would recognize today measles, mumps or rubella? Yet, we now have a larger number of children who remain unvac- cinated due to fear of the side effects rather than fear of the disease. This controversy has been playing itself out even more profoundly due to the potential threat of smallpox or other bioterrorism agents. As health, environment and safety professionals, we may be called upon to gather information about a number of vaccines, as well as what speci®c information is available as it relates to smallpox. A search using the terms ``medical'', ``information'' and ``vaccination'' will provide you with over 250,000 hitsÐthus there is a great deal of information out there, the trick of course is to hit upon the information you are after. State and county health departments are excellent sources of information about what vaccines are required and when they are sup- posed to be administered. You can quickly ®nd these sites by using the term ``county health'', ``state health'' and the name of your particular county or state. Many of these sites now con- tain information related to bioterrorism, anthrax and smallpox. Another immediate source of information can be found by looking at the various university sites like the University of Maryland. 1 You can also ®nd general vaccine information on the Center for Disease Control (CDC) site 2 which is a well organized and easy to navigate web site. The World Health Organization (WHO) site 3 is a more generic site with information on major programs worldwide. The American Medical Association site 4 provides good balanced information on vaccine programs. The Vaccine Page 5 is an excellent site with information and links to government sites and major nongovernmental organizations (NGO) supporting vaccine programs. This site is supported by the Program for Appropriate Technology and Health (PATH) which is com- prised of various major NGOs and medical organizations. You should check out Chil- dren's Vaccine Program, 6 another PATH supported site that promotes programs specializing in children's programs worldwide. The Vaccine Education Center at the Chil- dren's Hospital of Philadelphia 7 is a good research site with very helpful basic educa- tional information on vaccinations. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) 8 has another well organized and easy to navigate site that provides information on major initiatives for vaccination programs worldwide. GAVI is supported by WHO, the United Nations UNICEF program, the World Bank and major NGOs. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsors the web site for Partners for Health Reformplus 9 with information on a number of with the participation of WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank and USAID. These sites will provide you fact sheets and other information related to vaccines, risks, and ben- e®ts. If you are looking for speci®c information on smallpox, and potential bioterrorism threats, these same sites can provide you with detailed information. The CDC and the WHO both have extensive information available. The WHO fact sheet is an excellent resource. 9 The CDC page 10 has extensive information. You will also want to check out some of the other links to the various agents and threats. This resource has been provided as part of the CDC's ``Public Health Emergency Prepared- ness & Response'' program. The site is very informative and provides basic as well as in depth information. These sites should get you started on your questÐand hopefully you will be able to provide great resources to those concerned about that vaccine. References 1. http://www.umm.edu/universityfamilymed/ 2. http://www.cdc.gov 3. http://www.who.int 4. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/ 1804.html 5. http://vaccines.org (also http://vaccines.com) 6. http://www.childrensvaccine.org 7. http://www.vaccine.chop.edu 8. http://www.vaccinealliance.org 9. http://www.who.int/emc/diseses/smallpox/ factsheet.html 10. http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/index.- asp 30 ß Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society 1074-9098/03/$30.00 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1074-9098(03)00007-8

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I don’t want to go to the doctor