Many healthcare workers, as well as parents, are quick to cite historical reports of infectious diseases declining due to the introduction of immunizations. Columbia University reports that there were other factors that were much more responsible for the decline in diseases than vaccinations: The main influences on the decline in mortality were improved nutrition. . . reduced exposure (from better hygiene). . . and, less certainly, immunization and therapy on the large number of conditions included in the miscellaneous group. Since these three classes were responsible respectively for nearly half, one-sixth, and one-tenth of the fall in the death rate, IT IS PROBABLY THAT THE ADVANCEMENT IN NUTRITION WAS THE MAJOR INFLUENCE.”(columbia.edu/itc/hs/pubhealth/rosner/g8965/client_edit/readings/week_2/mckinlay.pdf) Researchers concluded the following: In general, medical measures appear to have contributed little to the overall decline in mortality in the United States since about 1900. More specifically, with reference to those five conditions (influenza, pneumonia, diptheria, whooping cough, and poliomyelitis) for which the decline in mortality appears to be substantial after the point of intervention–and on the unlikely assumption that all of this decline is attributable to the intervention–it is estimated that at most 3.5 percent of the total decline in mortality since 1900 could be ascribed to medical measures introduced for the diseases considered here. It is unfortunate that doctors do not instead concentrate on nutrition which plays the largest role in warding off diseases.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 18:02:37 +0000
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