Prevnar causes pneumonia and antibiotic resistant ear infections

This article is not much of shock to most people who've done any research on the Prevnar vaccine- reports of it causing severe antibiotic resistant ear infections and pneumonia are not new.  What is new  is that this article was reported in the main stream media, and THAT was a surprize to me!!!

Shot may be inadvertently boosting superbugs

Strains tied to kids’ ear infections flourish as vaccine fights common germs

 CHICAGO  — A vaccine that has dramatically curbed pneumonia and other serious illnesses in children is having an unfortunate effect: promoting new superbugs that cause ear infections.
It is a strain of strep bacteria not included in pneumococcal vaccine, Wyeth's Prevnar, which came on the market in 2000. It is recommended for children under age 2.On Monday, doctors reported discovering the first such germ that is resistant to all drugs approved to treat childhood ear infections. Nine toddlers in Rochester, N.Y., have had the germ and researchers say it may be turning up elsewhere, too.
Doctors say parents should continue to have their toddlers get the shots because the vaccine prevents serious illness and even saves lives. But the new resistant strep is a worry.
"The best way to prevent these resistant infections from spreading is to be careful about how we use antibiotics," said Dr. Cynthia Whitney, chief of respiratory diseases at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Avoiding antibiotics when they are not needed is the best way to ensure they will work when they are, she said.....
The children had been unsuccessfully treated with two or more antibiotics, including high-dose amoxicillin and multiple shots of another drug. Many needed surgery to place ear tubes to drain the infection, and some recovered only after treatment with a newer, powerful antibiotic whose safety in children has not been established.......Big trouble One strain in particular, called 19A, is big trouble. A new subtype of it caused ear infections in the nine Rochester children, ages 6 months to 18 months, that were resistant to all pediatric medications, said Dr. Michael Pichichero, a microbiologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Pichichero refused further comment because he has submitted a report to a medical journal. His work was paid for by antibiotic maker Abbott Laboratories and the Thrasher Foundation, which funds projects related to child health.
All 19A strep subtypes tend to be resistant to some drugs and have been growing in prevalence:

• Scientists from a drug company and two labs analyzed more than 21,000 bacterial samples from around the nation and found 19A increasing. Among children 2 and under, the portion of samples that were this strain rose to 15 percent in 2005-2006, from 4 percent in the previous three years.

• A British lab tracking respiratory infections in U.S. kids found that the 19A strain accounted for 40 percent of drug-resistant cases.

• University of Iowa researchers found 19A accounted for 35 percent of penicillin-resistant infections in 2004-05, compared with less than 2 percent the year before the new vaccine came out.

HERE to read the entire article on MSNBC

This article  gives lots more info about Prevnar, with tons of links to follow your own research:

Prevnar vaccine dangers

Search the Internet for Prevnar vaccine SAFETY and, surprise, surprise, you will get plenty of results about its dangers instead.I did such a search just out of curiosity. I had already learned that three babies in the Netherlands had died recently, at end-Oct / early-Nov 2009, after they were given this pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),
Also, I am familiar with data from Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) - which include "coincidental" events as well as those truly caused by vaccines - that showed 28,317 adverse reactions since the Prevnar vaccine was approved in 2000. These included:

• 558 deaths

• 555 life threatening conditions

• 238 permanent disabilities

• 2,584 hospitalisations

• 101 prolonged hospitalisations

• 8,166 emergency room cases and

• 16,155 "not serious".

In addition, I had written in an earlier article about pneumonia vaccine side effects that the introduction of Prevnar and other pneumonia vaccines has led to:

• an increase in the incidence of pneumonia caused by bacteria NOT covered by these vaccines

• an increase in middle-ear infections due to bacteria not linked to pneumonia

• the emergence of "superbugs" that are resistant to vaccines.

So I was already quite familiar with the dangers and side effects of PCV vaccines like Prevnar. I was curious what was being claimed about the safety of Prevnar vaccine. So I did a search on Google. I found...

• Prevnar IS Safe - Have a look at the studies...
 It tells about a new PCV-13 Prevnar vaccine trial in India that was stopped after a baby died. Looks like the title was just being sarcastic

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• VaccineRiskAwareness.com
... This is pretty straightforward, no sarcasm or anything of the sort. But I learn here that, oh, by the way, Prevnar has not been evaluated for any carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or impairment of fertility (ie they don’t know if it causes cancer, mutates into other illnesses or impairs people’s ability to have children).

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• By law, vaccines are not required to be tested for any links to cancer. This itself is not necessarily a danger, just a (very) possible danger of the unknown.

 HERE to read the entire article.

Killing the Hospital Super Bugs

Again and again we have heard it, from medical journals, the media and even some doctors:  that antibiotics are being widely and wildly over used in Canada and the US.  Infections are becoming more difficult to cure, bacteria have turned into superbugs that are very quickly becoming antibiotic resistant, and what was once a simple "cold" is turning into weeks of convalescence. These Super Villans are called MRSAs (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). The media has published a few  news stories about hospital super bugs that are killing thousands of patients ... but for the most part it's a big hush hush: the skeleton in the closet.  No hospital or doctor really wants to admit when a patient dies from a complicated infection that they CAUGHT in the hospital. We go there to receive treatment and "get well", right? 

Recently though there have been news stories of hospital cover ups and false death certificates, as some medical professionals panic to cover up the truth and try to hide the real reason so many patients have died .... and to save their insurance premiums from sky rocketing no doubt.

But what are our hospitals doing to combat these Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Staph, or "SuperBug" infections ?  Ordering more antibiotics?  Apparently the fact that it is the rampant over use of antibiotics that created these monsters is lost on them... or they just keep hoping to come up with some "super antibiotic" to act as Kryptonite to the Superbugs.  Regardless, nothing they have done has helped and in fact the problem is growing exponentially all over the world..... or is it?

One small country has all but eradicated the MRSA infections that threatened their national population years ago and they did it without any kryptonian antibiotics.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. The key part of that program?  Severely cutting back on the use of antibiotics.

Norway's model is surprisingly straightforward.

• Norwegian doctors prescribe fewer antibiotics than any other country, so people do not have a chance to develop resistance to them.

• Patients with MRSA are isolated and medical staff who test positive stay at home.

• Doctors track each case of MRSA by its individual strain, interviewing patients about where they've been and who they've been with, testing anyone who has been in contact with them.

Norwegians have learned to tough it out through coughs and colds and fevers, resorting to non-medicinal treatments and giving their bodies the time to battle the bugs and beat them all by themselves.

Now a new group of studies are proving that Norway's amazing example can be copied with relatively ease, and public health experts are saying these deaths — 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS — are unnecessary.  It's time for the CDC to take it's head out of the sand and admit that  antibiotics will not stop the wave of MRSA's that threaten to flood our hospitals. Nor will it do anything to deter other threats to our health, such as many "old diseases" that have returned wearing capes with the power to resist  antibiotics.  New Super strains are appearing like Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the resistance to the drugs we've come so heavily to rely upon is scaring even the most stalwart doctors and scientists.

As parents it is natural for us to worry about our children, and nothing is so heartbreaking to a mother or father than to watch their child cry because of a sore throat or ear ache, or suffer through fevers & chills and aches & pains, from various viruses that circulate throughout the schools and society as a whole.  We WANT to make it better.  We would do anything to fix it "RIGHT NOW".... and so we rush off to the doctor's office, or local emergency ward, returning home with a script for antibiotics.  Hence the circle continues. But waiting around for the CDC, and other major health organizations to take the lead in making the vitally necessary changes in our health care may mean that many of us will be old and grey before they even admit to the problem.  We need to be the ones to start the changes OURSELVES.

Peaceful Parenting has written an article on reducing healthcare-associated (sometimes hospital-acquired) infections (HAI). Dr.momma says:

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at any point in time, 1.4 million people worldwide suffer from infections acquired in hospitals. As birth advocates at DrMomma.org, we know that newborns and their mothers are significantly more likely to suffer HAIs when birthed in a hospital setting than if they are birthed at home.

That's right people: Child Birth is 99% of the time NOT an emergency- so stay away from the hospital!!  If you birth your baby at home, not only will you have a much better birth, free from the stresses of a hospital environment and their policies, but you will also NOT get infected by one of these acronym laden infections!!  I gave birth in a hospital 4 times- and 3 of those times I came home sick sick sick and 2 of those times I ended up with a sick baby as well.  Stay at home!!!

Besides avoiding hospitals like the plague, there are many simple things you can do to protect your family:

-hand washing- yea yea yea, we've heard it a million times this winter during the flu season, but it really is true: washing your hands regularly with just soap and water reduces your chances of picking up contagious bacteria and viruses exponentially!
-Boosting your immune system with Vitamin D&C, probiotics, and eating a healthy diet and getting exercise
-Don't weaken your immune system by flooding it with "anti-bacterial" everything!! They don't work any better than regular soap and water and cause health problems and damage our environment!
-Staying clear of HOSPITALS!!!  Hospitals save lives, but are not the place to go if you have an upset tummy or suspect your child has an ear infection. Hospitals are for heart attacks and broken legs! If you have no choice but to go to the hospital, try to take precautions against picking up any unwanted super villains.
-Using natural ingredients to help get rid of that cold, and to also boost immunities- like honey, cinnamon, garlic- and using aromatherapy oils and simple vinegar to replace many of your cleaning products.

Be wise, be educated, and stay safe!!! And remember: There's no place like HOME!