Parents, don't be immune to vaccine truths
Friday, April 17, 2009 - 19:49
in Health & Medicine
Doctors haven't done a great job explaining vaccines, so it's no wonder parents are confused. As a second-year pediatric resident, I went to India to work in a hospital in Mumbai. There, among the rows of sick, poor children, were ones dying from vaccine-preventable diseases. Among them, most starkly, was a 9-year-old boy in the most severe stage of tetanus -- every muscle in his body was locked in spasm, the sides of his face pointed upward in a grimaced smile -- "risus sardonicus," as it's known in pediatric textbooks.