Information Parents Need on Vaccines and Their Child’s Health

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Video News Release

Watch a broadcast quality video of Robert Frenck, MD, answer questions many parents have about vaccine safety.

Expert Answers to Your Questions About Vaccine Safety

Read "Vaccine safety: Information to share with parents" or download a copy in portable document format (.pdf).

As an increasing number of parents are choosing to delay, or even refuse, childhood immunizations for their children, many pediatricians are concerned parents do not fully understand the potential dangers to their children and others.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has created a video and Q&A with Robert Frenck Jr., MD, staff physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases, to provide evidence-based answers to questions many parents have regarding vaccine safety.

In an excerpt from the video, Dr. Frenck answers the question: Why are Childhood Immunizations important?
“These diseases are not gone. The only thing keeping them away is really our immunizations. In Great Britain there was a large decline in the number of children receiving the MMR and they saw large outbreaks of measles and children died…A lot of people say let them get the diseases because these are just childhood diseases, every child gets them, they’re ok. And that’s true, that’s what happened before we had immunizations, all of the children got the diseases, but a lot of them died.”

About Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is one of America's top three children's hospitals for general pediatrics and is highly ranked for its expertise in digestive diseases, respiratory diseases, cancer, neonatal care, heart care and neurosurgery, according to the annual ranking of best children's hospitals by US News & World Report. One of the three largest children's hospitals in the US, Cincinnati Children's is affiliated with the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health.

For its achievements in transforming healthcare, Cincinnati Children's is one of six US hospitals since 2002 to be awarded the American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize ® for leadership and innovation in quality, safety and commitment to patient care. The hospital is a national and international referral center for complex cases, so that children with the most difficult-to-treat diseases and conditions receive the most advanced care leading to better outcomes.