Get Kids Ready For The School, Add Vaccinations To The List.

Getting ready for the new school year, among new clothes, bags and lunch boxes, do not forget about the immunizations. You need to make sure all the children are vaccinated to protect them from various deceases.In addition to being protective, it might be required by your state to immunize children against certain deceases like Whooping Cough (pertussis), if you are unsure inquire with your doctor, school or your health department.Some vaccine controllable deceases have become rare but there are instances of flair ups like the 2010's whooping cough, or measles cases reported this year. The only timely vaccinations will keep yours and other children safe from these preventable but deadly deceases.

It is not easy to to track down if you miss a vaccination shot and to help you with that, CDC and Georgia Tech have developed the Catch-Up Immunization Scheduler, an online tool that shows parents and healthcare providers the best options for getting children 6 years of age and younger back on schedule.

For the children between 7-18, parents and healthcare providers can use the Adolescent Immunization Scheduler to determine what vaccines are needed

Children Birth-6 years

Parents can find out what vaccines their children need and when the doses should be given by reviewing the nationally recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule.

During the early years of life, children are recommended to get vaccines to protect them from 14 diseases that can be serious, even life-threatening. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their own children increase the risk of disease not only for their children, but also for other children and adults throughout the entire community. For example, vulnerable newborns too young to have received the maximum protection from the recommended doses of vaccines or people with weakened immune systems such as some people with cancer and transplant recipients are also at higher risk of disease.

Flu vaccines are recommended for kids in pre-school and elementary school to help keep them healthy. In fact, all children 6 months and older should get flu vaccines. Getting all of your children vaccinated – as well as other family members and caregivers – also can help protect infants younger than 6 months old. Ask your family's doctor or nurse about getting flu shots or the nasal spray to protect them against flu.

Children and Teens 7-18 years

CDC provides an immunization schedule for people ages 7 through 18 years for parents and doctors to protect children and teens from vaccine-preventable disease.

Older children need vaccines, too! Of course, everyone older than 6 months of age is recommended to receive a yearly flu vaccination, and older children are no exception! It's important to know that flu can be serious, even for healthy young people. So older kids should get at least one flu shot every year.
As kids get older, they are more at risk for catching diseases, like meningococcal meningitis, so they need protection that vaccines provide. The recommended immunization schedule is regularly updated to include new vaccines and reflect current research. So, it has probably changed since your child was first immunized. Specific vaccines, like HPV, are recommended to be given during the preteen (11-12) years and teen (13-18) years. If kids don't get these vaccines on time, they should get caught up as soon as possible.
For other diseases, like whooping cough, the protection from vaccine doses received in childhood wears off over time. That's why 11- and 12-year-olds are also recommended to get the booster shot called Tdap. Teens—and adults, too—who have not gotten Tdap should get this booster as soon as possible. Tdap is a version of the DTaP vaccine given to infants and young children.

More information

• Frequently Asked Questions about Vaccines & Diseases They Prevent
• Parents' Guide to Childhood Immunizations
• Diseases and the Vaccines that Prevent Them (fact sheets)
• State Mandates on Immunization and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, Immunization Action Coalition
• School and daycare vaccination requirements
• Links to State, City and Island Immunization or Public Health Department Websites
• If You Choose Not to Vaccinate Your Child, Understand the Risks and Responsibilities [PDF - 512 KB]
• Keeping Track of Vaccination Records

Via CDC

Beat That Extreme Heat And Be Safe!

Heat is affecting millions of people now and hurting by it. Extreme heat is no laughing matter and could be deadly if proper prevention is not taken. If you are in the area affected by the heat and your home does not have air conditioning, locate a public health sponsored heat-relief shelter in your community and don't forget your pets as well;

• Drink more fluids (nonalcoholic), regardless of your activity level. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. Warning: If your doctor generally limits the amount of fluid you drink or has you on water pills, ask him how much you should drink while the weather is hot.
• Don’t drink liquids that contain alcohol or large amounts of sugar–these actually cause you to lose more body fluid. Also, avoid very cold drinks, because they can cause stomach cramps.
• Stay indoors and, if at all possible, stay in an air-conditioned place. If your home does not have air conditioning, go to the shopping mall or public library–even a few hours spent in air conditioning can help your body stay cooler when you go back into the heat. Call your local health department to see if there are any heat-relief shelters in your area.
• Electric fans may provide comfort, but when the temperature is in the high 90s, fans will not prevent heat-related illness. Taking a cool shower or bath, or moving to an air-conditioned place is a much better way to cool off.
• Wear lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing.
• NEVER leave anyone in a closed, parked vehicle.
• Although any one at any time can suffer from heat-related illness, some people are at greater risk than others. Check regularly on:
  • Infants and young children
  • People aged 65 or older
  • People who have a mental illness
  • Those who are physically ill, especially with heart disease or high blood pressure
• Visit adults at risk at least twice a day and closely watch them for signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Infants and young children, of course, need much more frequent watching.

If you have to be outside;

• Limit your outdoor activity to morning and evening hours.
• Cut down on exercise. If you must exercise, drink two to four glasses of cool, nonalcoholic fluids each hour. A sports beverage can replace the salt and minerals you lose in sweat. Warning: If you are on a low-salt diet, talk with your doctor before drinking a sports beverage. Remember the warning in the first “tip” (above), too.
• Try to rest often in shady areas.
• Protect yourself from the sun by wearing a wide-brimmed hat (also keeps you cooler) and sunglasses and by putting on sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher (the most effective products say “broad spectrum” or “UVA/UVB protection” on their labels).

Keeping Your Newborn Baby Safe From Sun On July 4th Outings.

Newborn's comes with sensitive skin, let me say very sensitive and fragile and is particularly vulnerable to sunburn, that we all used to enjoy around July 4th and beyond. So parents (and everyone around and near a baby) should be extra cautious and take care of the bundle of joy.

The American Academy of Pediatrics offers these suggestions to prevent sunburn in babies less than six months:

Avoid sun exposure as much as possible.
Dress baby in a lightweight, long-sleeved top and long pants.
Put baby in a wide-brimmed hat to shield the face.
If you can't keep baby out of the sun, apply a small bit of sunscreen to the face and the backs of baby's hands.

Via Medline Plus

350 million adults have diabetes: Study reveals the scale of global epidemic

A major international study collating and analyzing worldwide data on diabetes since 1980 has found that the number of adults with the disease reached 347 million in 2008, more than double the number in 1980. The research, published today in The Lancet, reveals that the prevalence of diabetes has risen or at best remained unchanged in virtually every part of the world over the last three decades.

Diabetes occurs when the cells of the body are not able to take up sugar in the form of glucose. As a consequence, the amount of glucose in the blood is higher than normal. Over time, this raises the risk of heart disease and stroke, and can also cause damage to the kidneys, nerves and retinas. High blood glucose and diabetes are responsible for over three million deaths worldwide each year.

The new study found that between 1980 and 2008, the number of adults with diabetes rose from 153 million to 347 million. Seventy per cent of the rise was due to population growth and ageing, with the other 30 per cent due to higher prevalence. The proportion of adults with diabetes rose to 9.8 per cent of men and 9.2 per cent of women in 2008, compared with 8.3 per cent of men and 7.5 per cent of women in 1980.

The estimated number of diabetics was considerably higher than a previous study in 2009 which put the number worldwide at 285 million.

The study, the largest of its kind for diabetes, was carried out by an international collaboration of researchers, led by Professor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London and co-led by Dr. Goodarz Danaei from the Harvard School of Public Health, in collaboration with The World Health Organization and a number of other institutions.

Professor Majid Ezzati, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said "Diabetes is one of the biggest causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Our study has shown that diabetes is becoming more common almost everywhere in the world. This is in contrast to blood pressure and cholesterol, which have both fallen in many regions. Diabetes is much harder to prevent and treat than these other conditions."

Dr. Goodarz Danaei, from the Harvard School of Public Health, added "Unless we develop better programmes for detecting people with elevated blood sugar and helping them to improve their diet and physical activity and control their weight, diabetes will inevitably continue to impose a major burden on health systems around the world."

To test whether or not someone has diabetes, doctors measure the levels of glucose in a patient's blood after they have not eaten for 12 to 14 hours, since blood sugar rises after a meal. A "fasting plasma glucose" (FPG) below 5.6 millimoles per litre (mmol/L) is considered normal, above 7 mmol/L is diagnostic of diabetes and an FPG level between 5.6 and 7 is considered pre-diabetes.

The study included blood sugar measurements from 2.7 million participants aged 25 years or more across the world and used advanced statistical methods for analyzing data. According to the results, average fasting sugar rose from 5.3 mmol/L in men and 5.2 mmol/L in women in 1980 to 5.5 mmol/L in men and 5.4 mmol/L in women in 2008, even after accounting for age differences over time.

The study also found that:

* Diabetes has taken off most dramatically in Pacific Island nations, which now have the highest diabetes levels in the world. In the Marshall Islands, one in three women and one in four men have diabetes. Glucose and diabetes were also particularly high in south Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
* Among high-income countries, the rise in diabetes was relatively small in Western Europe and highest in North America. Diabetes and glucose levels were highest in USA, Greenland, Malta, New Zealand and Spain, and lowest in the Netherlands, Austria and France.
* Of the 347 million people with diabetes, 138 million live in China and India and another 36 million in the USA and Russia.
* The region with the lowest glucose levels was sub-Saharan Africa, followed by east and southeast Asia.

###

Funding for the study came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organisation.

For further information please contact:

Sam Wong
Research Media Officer
Imperial College London
Email: sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)20 7594 2198
Out of hours duty press officer: +44(0)7803 886 248

Marge Dwyer
Office of Communications
Harvard School of Public Health
mhdwyer@hsph.harvard.edu
Tel: +1 617 432 8416

Smoking Kills! New FDA Labels Shows How!

After more than 25 years since the last cigarette labeling requirements, today the FDA released new warning labels that will start to appear on cigarette packaging and advertising in September 2012.

Beginning September 2012, FDA will require larger, more prominent cigarette health warnings on all cigarette packaging and advertisements in the United States. These warnings mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and are a significant advancement in communicating the dangers of smoking.

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Should I Get Screened for Prostate Cancer ? YES

If you did not know before, now you know. Get screened, have a peace of mind
Follow the link to find out more.
Why You Should Get Screened for Prostate Cancer ~ Oncowikia Blog

#measleschat Twitter Discussion About Measles With Real Doctors.

Do you have questions about current Measles outbreak? Or questions about Measles and Vaccines? Join the Twitter chat going on now with Doctors from CDC and AAP.
Go to your twitter page and type #measleschat  to join. Following are the announcement, first question and the first answer;

 Questions abt measles & vaccines? Chat live TODAY w/USAToday and w/drs from CDC & AAP at 1 pm EST. Use #measleschat to join

Q1: RT @LizSzabo: Is the current measles outbreak being driven by unvaccinated people, or a more virulent strain? #measleschat

A1: Most patients were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status #measleschat