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For Practitioners : General
- The Allied Vaccine Group is a collection of
websites dedicated to presenting valid scientific information about
vaccines. Its members present vaccine information based on scientific
research, followed by honest disclosure of the research results. The
Vaccine Page is a member.
- The American Medical Association (AMA) web page on immunization provides scientifically-based information on recent immunization and vaccination issues, to assist physicians in educating parents and others about why vaccines are important, what the facts are about vaccine risks and what is being done to reduce these risks.
- The Brighton Collaboration is a resource for standardized case definitions of adverse events following immunization (AEFI). Its mission is is to facilitate the development, evaluation and dissemination of high quality information about the safety of human vaccines.
- The CDC National Immunization Information Hotline offers live, trained specialists to give each caller individualized attention. The phone number (for English) is 1-800-232-2522 and, for Spanish, 1-800-232-0233. There is also a TTY line, 1-800-243-7889. The website itself gives much information and is quite easy to navigate.
- Expert Reviews
in Molecular Medicine is a free Web-only international review journal on
molecular medicine, including vaccination. It is a non-profit educational project of the
Cambridge Clinical School. Articles are written by invited experts, peer reviewed
pre-submission and professionally edited. They are available in html and PDF format.
- Guía Práctica de Vacunación is a Spanish-language site that gives information about vaccines and infectious diseases to health care professionals, nurses, teachers, students, parents and the public. The site is produced and maintained by Dr. Carlos Kohler, Director of Preventive Medicine, City of Bahía Blanca, Argentina. Along with much other information, it provides country-by-country vaccination schedules for Western Hemisphere nations.
- Healthy Living - Immunisation is a section of The Better Health Channel, a product of the State
Government of Victoria, Australia. A document with many links, it leads to details on each vaccine-preventable disease, as well as to official information on The Victorian Child Health Record.
- HealthCentral.com maintains an Immunization
and Vaccines Center that is newsy and well documented.
Columns by Dr. Dean Edell and others explore the ongoing
immunization controversies.
- History of Vaccination - Vaccines and vaccination
have a long history, dating back to Edward Jenner and even before. Several websites have
addressed that history, some in a very brief way and others in more detail. From the
former category to the latter, here are two recommended sites: Vaccines - How and
Why (from Access Excellence Classic Collection); The legacy of Edward Jenner (from the
Archives of The British Medical Journal).
- History of Vaccination 2The World Health Organization (WHO) has a fairly complete story on vaccines from then to now, broken down into time periods.
- How Vaccines Work is a simple, direct statement from the National Partnership for Immunization. It covers the bases adequately in just six PDF pages.
- Immunization At A Glance is a handy page of the World Bank website that gets at the key issues, beginning with the question, Why Is Immunization of High Priority?
- Immunization
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) lists the required and recommended vaccinations in
Italy. It is one of the pages of Malinf (Malattie
Infettive), the Infectious Diseases division of the Italian Ministry of Health
in Rome.
- The Immunization
Gateway: Your Vaccine Fact-Finder is a large collection of links to Internet sources
chosen for their authenticity. The website is moderated by John Grabenstein, a Lieutenant
Colonel on active duty with the United States Army Medical Department and a doctoral
student in pharmacoepidemiology at the Schools of Pharmacy and Public Health at the
University of North Carolina.
- Immunizations from
Kidsource. A fast checklist from another commercial source, with a chart that's nicely
formatted to be readable on your browser's screen. Health professionals might find this
chart convenient, along with other pages on this website intended for laymen.
- The
Institute For Vaccine Safety (IVS) at Johns Hopkins University draws on all the
resources of that institution to provide a forum for the rational discussion of vaccine
safety issues, based on IVS' own research. Newly-produced, the website is in a formative
stage (as is the Institute), but already promises to be of extreme value to parents, other
adults, practitioners, researchers and the responsible media.
- The
National Centre for Immunisation Research (NCIRS)"
was established at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children,
Sydney, by Australia's National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)
in August 1997, to carry out research and give independent
expert advice about all aspects of diseases which can be
prevented by vaccination, particularly in children.
- The National Immunization Information Hotline, funded
by the CDC, can be reached through the website of the American
Social Health Association. It provides toll-free information, support, educational
materials and referrals about vaccine-preventable diseases in children and adults.
Counselors give individualized information to parents and providers about vaccine
schedules, requirements for school entry, adverse events, contraindications and more. The
hotline is open from 8AM-11PM Monday through Friday. The phone numbers are 1-800-232-2522
(English) and 1-800-232-0233 (Spanish).
- The
National Network for Immunization Information provides the
public and other groups with up-to-date, scientifically valid
information related to immunization to help them understand
the issues and to facilitate informed decision making. NNII
provides Immunization NewsBriefs, an electronic clipping
service for news on immunizations and vaccines. This free
subscription is delivered to your e-mail address three
mornings each week. The
National Network for Immunization Information is a member
of the Allied Vaccine Group.
- The April 25 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) includes much valuable material on smallpox, including a timely article for practitioners; a Perspective by Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen; an Editorial by Dr. Anthony Fauci; two original articles; Correspondence; a Sounding Board piece on The Case for Voluntary Smallpox Vaccination, and more.
- New
England Journal of Medicine database allows for a search of issues going back to
1990, by title, topic or author. A recent simple search for "vaccines" resulted
in some 50 references, all available online through a mouse click.
- Overview of Vaccine Safety is a page from the CDC National Immunization Program website. It carries comprehensive information on vaccine safety before and after licensing of a new vaccine, and offers sections on Improvements in Vaccine Safety and on The Future of Vaccine Safety.
- State-by-state
mandates on
vaccine-preventable diseases can now be readily found on a new
online resource offered by the Immunization
Action Coalition (IAC). Included is information compiled
by IAC on state mandates for hepatitis B and varicella
prevention. The web page also links to information on state
mandates for DTP, MMR, polio, and Hib vaccination, reprinted
from "State Immunization Requirements 1998-1999" by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This
information will be updated when CDC revises its publication.
- Vaccination and
Prophylaxis is the World Wide Web site to accompany the Pocket Guide by Hal
B. Jenson, M.D. published in July 1998 by W.B. Saunders,
Philadelphia. The site contains additional materials and, in future, will
contain information updates as recommendations and guidelines change.
- Vaccination
Sites: Francophone is a French vaccine page (with no
English version available). It is a quite thorough listing of
all such sites based on a MeSH search.
- Vaccine Bulletin is a newsletter for pediatricians with news and information about the administration of vaccines to children and adolescents. It addresses infectious disease epidemiology, vaccine handling and delivery (including federal and professional society recommendations), vaccine research and development, licensure of new vaccines and revenue and reimbursement for vaccine administration.
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Focusing on the immunization
needs of children and adolescents, VaccineCheck offers a wealth of vaccination
information that is clearly and concisely presented. The highlight of the Web
site is the unique, interactive immunization planner. On-line software allows
the user to enter a child's age and individual immunization history. It then
creates an accurate catch-up schedule for a child who is behind in his or her
immunizations. Based on the guidance of the Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices, the CDC, and other equally reliable sources
(including two members of the Allied Vaccine Group), the software generates a
printable schedule that can help clarify a confusing array of separate
immunization records.
- Vaccine Manufacturers is a list maintained by The University of Manchester in England. It's as complete as any we have found.
- Vaccine Research Fact Sheets and Brochures is a page from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases website that lists reports and press releases on vaccines dating back to 1995. It's a resource of value to each of The Vaccine Page's target audiences.
- Vaccines
in The Merck Manual.
This is the result of a search for vaccines in the most-read medical text in the world.
Attractive graphics unfortunately slow the loading of the Manual's home page; see our
"Tips" link in the blue navigation bar at the left for advice on loading a page
without images. In any case, the "Search" box on the Manual's home page is
always above the bottom of your screen, providing quick access to the text.
- Virtual
Hospital Search grants access to the database of the Virtual
Hospital, maintained by the University of Iowa. It is billed as "a continuously
updated digital health sciences library stored on computers and available over high speed
networks 24 hours a day." Very rich in data, it is somewhat confusing to navigate.
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