Friday, July 09, 2010

Medical news of the week

I almost have to laugh: MMWR is now on facebook.

That's the weekly CDC stats.

This week: sex in teens is down, cigarette smoking in teens is down, almost as many women are sterilized as use the pill, and West Nile Virus infections are down.

They also have the newest immunization schedules.

For old folks, the big news is chickenpox vaccine...no, old folks don't get chicken pox, but they do get shingles, and this can leave them in pain for months. If you get the vaccine, your chance of getting shingles is lower, and if you do get it, your chance of post herpetic neuralgia, the real painful complication, is less.


as for kids here are the latest recommendations:


the only new one here is rotavirus: a nasty nasty diarrhea. No, it's rarely fatal in the US, but overseas it's a big killer.

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