And that actually stands to reason.
In other words, as vaccinations have become available and widely used, rates of infection have declined.
But there are some people for whomvaccine-preventable illnesses areand remaintop of mind.
Heather Hazzan. Wardrobe styling by Ronald Burton. Prop styling by Campbell Pearson. Hair by Hide Suzuki. Makeup by Deanna Melluso at See Management. Shot on location at One Medical.
Health-care providers are another group on the front lines of dealing with vaccine-preventable illnesses.
Outbreaks of certain preventable and highly contagious diseases like measles and pertussis (whooping cough) areon the rise.
And those are particularly troubling because theyre mostly younger children.
This highlights the importance of vaccines not just for individuals but for whole families and communities.
Then rarely we see meningococcus, and thats always very tragic because thats an extremely serious infection.
A lot of those kids are very, very ill and some of them even die.
Seeing so many children with these illnesses is, as you’re able to imagine, emotionally taxing.
Theyre going to get measles, and some of them are going to suffer and possibly even die.
Now I see it all the time, sadly, he says.
I see a lot of these vaccine-preventable diseases coming back all the time.
One adult patients death from tetanus during his residency left a particularly deep impression.
They died in front of mein the emergency room by the way, they never made it past there.
And they got antibiotics, they got the appropriate medications for tetanus…and they still died.
And they died a terrible death.
Which is why news of outbreaks in the U.S. are so alarming to him.
I really thought I would never see kids in the United States with tetanus, he says.
I feel terrible when I see these things, and I never thought I would see them again.
Infectious disease specialists and family doctors aren’t the only medical providers who worry about vaccines.
Her biggest fight, she says, is the flu vaccine, which she does administer.
My kids are very sick and theyre very fragile, she tells SELF.
It can pass through the hospital despite our best infection control methods.
A key part of protecting her patients is talking to vaccine-hesitant parents.
That just doesnt make sense.
As a physician, she’s witnessed tragic outcomes from vaccine-preventable illnesses.
It feels like a step backward when were impatient and unable to work on the next emerging thing.
Even a threat from outside her county can require an all-hands-on-deck emergency response.
That includes cases such as salmonella, or even pertussis, another vaccine-preventable disease.
We have so many diseases that are not vaccine-preventable, its really disheartening, Dr. Pan said.
This story is part of a larger package called Vaccines Save Lives.
you’re able to find the rest of the packagehere.
