Transcript

Event Date(s): 07/03/2002 | Event Location(s): Today New York Studio | Description: Roker in live Today New York Studio interview with pediatrician and Today contributor Dr. Mark Widome. Widome says "You know, there's no one single answer. There were some production problems at a couple of the manufacturers. One of the manufacturers went out of the business of making one of the vaccines altogether, and it doesn't seem to be as economically profitable as making ulcer drugs and high blood pressure medicines and things like that. And the regulations caused some manufacturers to change their process, get the mercury out of the some of the vaccines. So it's a combination of different things. But clearly, the financial incentives for making vaccines is not there, compared to other pharmaceutical products. The tetanus diphtheria booster, which is the one that you get between 11 and 12 and then you're supposed to get every 10 years after that for the rest of your life, this was a critical shortage. Now it's been relieved and if you're 10 or 11 or 12 years old or if you're a teen-ager and you didn't get that booster vaccine, this summer is an excellent time to get it, because tetanus is, as you know, a disease that's caused by dirty wounds. Kids are outside playing, doing sports and that sort of thing, so this is a vaccine, as of the past couple of weeks, now it's back in good supply. Pediatricians are supposed to have recall systems where they call families or send postcards to get kids back. But if you think your child, you know, may is behind in this particular vaccine, give a call, get in for an immunization-only visit. That's the one that also contains the pertussis or whooping cough vaccine. That's the one that you get three shots in the first year of life, one as--in the second year and one as a preschooler. This is not as critically short, but now they're back and available again. And if you perhaps missed the one in the second year of life or the preschool one, this summer, once again, is a good time to get caught up at your next regular visit or for an immunization-only visit. This is a really important vaccine because measles is a very serious disease that can lead to brain damage and other kinds of problems. Also, the rubella vaccine, which is included in there, is the one that prevents birth defects. What happened there is there was a shortage, mostly in public clinics, not so much in private doctors' offices, but you're supposed to get two doses, one in the second year of life and one before you start school. And the concern is that a lot of people have been delayed in the preschool shots. So with--if your child is starting kindergarten this fall in particular make sure they get the second dose of the MMR vaccine. Most states require, certainly, the MMR vaccine and states vary in the other vaccines that they require. What a lot of state health departments and departments of education had to do is temporarily change their regulations while these shortages were being replenished. But I can tell you, going into school this fall, the school systems are going to require the MMR vaccine and the diphtheria tetanus vaccine and all the other vaccines, so summer's a time to bring those up to date. One of them is the chicken pox vaccine, the Verivax vaccine, which is an important vaccine that you normally get in the second year of life. That's going to get into better supply this summer. So if you're in the second year of life, by the end of the summer, this vaccine ought to be OK. The one that's going to be in critical short supply until the end of the year is the new pneumococcal vaccine. That's the one that prevents blood infections and meningitis. It's a vaccine that prevents a disease that kills a couple hundred people a year. That vaccine, you're not going to get all four doses. You might get two or three doses now. Probably later in the year, the first part of 2003, will be back in supply again. Well, it's good enough for now. You know, we're sort of coasting on very good immunization rates from previous years. We've had about 18 months of short supplies. But yeah, I can tell you, Al, that if these shortages were to continue another year or two, we would start seeing major health problems. So I think we're OK for now or everybody's holding their breath, but hopefully by the end of the year, the short supplies will be totally relieved." 9:48:38 GFX: "Today's Family" and web site plug "today.msnbc.com."