A-Z Guide to the Year in Medicine

(18 of 20)

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VACCINES If all goes well, the FDA could approve the first vaccine for cervical cancer by 2006. A large-scale study presented at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in October found that Merck's experimental vaccine Gardasil was 100% effective against two strains of human papillomavirus that cause 70% of all cervical cancers. Another experimental Merck vaccine was tested this year for protection against shingles, the painful blistering disorder caused by the chicken-pox virus. In a trial of more than 38,500 adults 60 and older, the vaccine cut the risk of shingles by more than half. It also reduced by two-thirds the symptoms of chronic pain that afflict many of the 1 million U.S. adults who develop shingles each year.

An older vaccine got a new look when a CDC advisory panel backed the broader use of a vaccine for hepatitis A in 1- and 2-year-olds, estimating that routine use in children could cut the national caseload of the disease by 180,000. For teens and adults, the panel recommended a booster shot for pertussis, or whooping cough, a highly infectious, long-lasting illness that has been on the rise since 1976, particularly among adolescents. The shot could prevent 1 million cases a year.

If you're still wary about the risks of inoculation, consider this: a study in J.A.M.A. reported that routine childhood vaccinations do not increase children's vulnerability to unrelated diseases or infections. What's more, in a survey of 302 pediatricians that was published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 39% of doctors said they would stop caring for families who refused vaccinations.