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Vi Typhoid Vaccine: Safe And Effective For Young Children

Vaccination against infectious diseases is perhaps the most important reason why millions of additional persons do not succumb with morbidity and mortality from viral and bacterial infections in the modern world. Vaccines are most effective when they are administered with sufficient distribution and frequency to protect as many people as possible.

In the July 23, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med 2009;361:335-44, there appeared an article reporting a study by Dipika Sur, MD and colleagues entitled “A Cluster-Randomized Effectiveness Trial of Vi Typhoid Vaccine in India.” The premise of the study was that typhoid fever, caused by infection with the bacteria Salmonella enterica serotype typhi (S. typhi), causes up to 600,00 deaths per year, mostly in developing countries. Injectable Vi polysaccharide vaccine has up to this time been used in a limited fashion in public health programs, and there have been unanswered questions about its effectiveness in children (ages 2 to 5 years) and in particular its use to cause “herd” immunity (e.g., if it is given to a large population living in close proximity, will it promote immunity in the nonimmunized “herd” of people). Read more »

This post, Vi Typhoid Vaccine: Safe And Effective For Young Children, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..

Should Parents Track Their Child’s Developmental Milestones With An iPhone App?

baby computer

With our world becoming high tech, it’s not surprising that gizmos and programs or our computers, iPhones and Smartphones are emerging to help us track everything from our infant’s cry to our child’s development. But, are these necessary?

I was called by a reporter from Wired.com to weigh in on this with a colleague of mine. As members of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council of Communications and Media, and Spokespersons for the AAP, we had a few opinions on this very important topic that I want to share with you that you can find here.

Before you download or buy any computer program or cell phone application just ask yourself one question: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr Gwenn Is In*

Picture of the Week: How Genetics Work

(Via Why Evolution is True)

Co-dominance?

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Top Five Signs of Common Mental Health Conditions

Disorders like depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and bipolar disorder all have warning signs. If you are concerned about these signs in yourself or others, talk to a trusted adult and get help!

Clinical Depression

  • Loss of appetite
  • Insomnia and trouble sleeping almost every night
  • Unable to focus on even simple activities
  • Extremely low energy
  • Loss of interest in things you normally enjoy Read more »

This post, Top Five Signs of Common Mental Health Conditions, was originally published on Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..

Adult Controls For iPhone Apps

I had heard there were “adult only” applications on iTunes but hadn’t seen any myself – until yesterday.

I’ve been on the application store many times to find cool application for my iPhone and never seen anything alarming. Yesterday, however, under “top free applications”, this is what I found:

freeapps

Note #2, “Beautiful Boobs”. If you scroll down, you’ll find #74 “Pocket Girlfriend lite”, among others in a similar vein! Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr Gwenn Is In*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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