Benefits of vaccination

Joseph Albietz, a medical doctor, briefly gives the harm reduction numbers for inoculations against disease.

What causes third-trimester abortions?

After the murder of abortion provider George Tiller for doing third-trimester abortions, there were a lot of hysterical accusations about the number of abortions he did and the reasons for them. I looked for solid research on the reasons. I read the personal experiences of people who had to face third-trimester abortions. They wanted to have a baby, but genetic or developmental errors intervened. Given the frequency of these defects, Dr. Tiller probably did about a 100 – 200 a year, but that’s just a rough estimate on my part. It’s certain he didn’t do 60,000, which would keep him working feverishly every day for two lifetimes.

The reasons they gave were basically the same as those I found in a research paper from 1999. This paper studie second-trimester and third-trimester abortions at one hospital over several years. Only “singletons” were studied, so none of the fetuses were conjoined twins. About 2/3 were done in the second trimester and 1/3 in the third trimester. The reasons for a third-trimester abortion were:

* In 40%, an earlier test indicated that a defect existed but not how serious it was. Doctors delayed and re-tested to see if the defect was serious enough to be life-threatening. Some genetic conditions can be mild or severe, so to prevent unnecessary abortions the doctors waited.
* In 37%, an earlier test failed to find the serious defects that showed up later.
* In 18%, a diagnosis for this kind of defect can’t be made until the third trimester. This often seems to include anencephaly, a fatal birth defect.
* And in the remaining 5%, doctors or parents delayed the decision to abort. I correlated this with what I’ve read about doctors ordering yet another another test to make sure, waiting for a referral, parents not able to believe the news, having hysterics and going home, and praying for a miracle.

Reference:
Dommergues M, Benachi A, Benifla JL, des Noëttes R, Dumez Y., British Journal of Obstetrical Gynaecology, 1999 Apr;106(4):297-303. The reasons for termination of pregnancy in the third trimester. PubMed ID: 10426234.

If third-trimester abortions are outlawed, some parents may choose earlier abortions when it’s not certain they are needed.

Some critics mentioned club foot as a reason for abortion. Club foot means that at least one foot is turned in. It is not a reason for abortion, but it is a warning to screen very carefully for other health problems. The same goes for other deformities of the digits or limbs. Club foot is associated with spina bifida and anencephaly and other birth defects, some of them fatal.

One defect that can be missed at the second-trimester scan is anencephaly, in which the brain fails to develop. It is uniformly fatal, often before or during birth.

Anencephaly, view of back of head

Will face masks prevent flu?

The CBC asks, “Will face masks protect you from the flu?”

After the outbreak of SARS in 2003, Canada’s Public Health Agency commissioned a group of medical experts to research transmission of flu viruses and how to stop it.

Their report concluded that the scientific evidence remains unclear about how precisely flu is spread and what role exposure to bigger or smaller virus particles plays in transmission. It found that flu viruses are mainly transmitted over short distances and that more people become infected by inhaling viruses than by touching contaminated surfaces.

The report was produced by the Council of Canadian Academies, chaired by Dr. Donald Low, microbiologist in chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

One of the questions the panel considered was whether face masks would offer protection in the event of a pandemic.

The verdict: yes, to an extent.

…a face mask — or personal protective respiratory equipment — is the final layer of protection when exposure to an infected person is required or unavoidable. . The primary elements of protection are “engineering and administrative controls.”

Engineering controls include physical controls such as ventilation requirements in buildings, and relative humidity and temperature controls. Administrative controls are measures that individuals handle, such as handwashing, covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough or seeking medical care when you’re sick.

People who are carrying flu virus release it in tiny drops of water when they sneeze, cough, or even talk. So wearing a mask, even a plain surgical mask, can help them to keep from spreading flu to others. The virus lives for short times on fabric.

N95 mask with valve

Ordinary masks can be effective for up to eight hours, but once taken off, they must be replaced.

The N95 mask is more effective. It stops about 95% of organisms. But that makes it hard to breathe through. That means that people don’t like to wear them properly. A more expensive version has a valve for exhaling, which makes it cooler and more comfortable.

Finally, Filligent is offering a BioMask that is designed to kill Influenza A viruses, remain germ-free when touched, and in general stand up to the rigors of pandemics.

People who are infected with flu leave the virus on whatever they touch, even before they are showing symptoms. The flu virus survives for up to 48 hours on a nonporous surface such as steel. Try not to touch things unnecessarily.Consider wearing gloves: a friend reported that when he kept his  gloves on in the subway during winter, he caught 40% fewer colds.

When you come home, wash your hands and change your clothes.

Also, learn not to touch your face or eyes. A virus can easily penetrate mucous membranes,  such as those around your eyes and in your mouth.

Ordinary masks can be effective for up to eight hours, but once taken off, they must be replaced.

Pandemic alert levels

An epidemic is an outbreak of disease above its normal, endemic levels. A pandemic is a widespread and serious epidemic involving several countries or more.

See full-sized image.

Swine flu alert

Some cases of swine influenza, notably in Mexico, are being transmitted between people; about twenty people have died. This is important because flu from other animals tends to make people sicker. If it’s easy to catch and hard on people, it might spread around the world with travellers.

Some people in the U.S. have become sick and a few in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The American Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have been watching very carefully. They say:

Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza…

From December 2005 through February 2009, a total of 12 human infections with swine influenza were reported from 10 states in the United States. Since March 2009, a number of confirmed human cases of a new strain of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection in California, Texas, and Mexico have been identified… See Human Swine Flu Investigation.

The current vaccine does not protect against the virus, which has components from human, avian, North American swine, and Eurasian swine flus.

Swine flu virus

(Image from this Chemistry course)

If vaccine needs to be manufactured, it will take a few months to get the right strain. And the world’s capacity for making flu shots is only about 400,000 to 500,000 doses.

There was a previous swine flu scare in 1976.