This is the first of three blog re-posts from our partner organization, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, highlighting their involvement as champion advocates with Shot@Life:
A new report offers further evidence into the safety of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. Becoming a Shot@Life Champion can help increase access to such life-saving vaccines around the world.
As the conversation about vaccination grows in the U.S. and worldwide, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine® on March 5 has again shown no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.
This study of 657,461 Danish children is one of the largest research projects ever conducted examining the MMR vaccine. The researchers note, “The study strongly supports that MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger autism in susceptible children and is not associated with clustering of autism cases after vaccination. It adds to previous studies through significant additional statistical power and by addressing hypotheses of susceptible subgroups and clustering of cases.”
On the front lines of health care, nurse practitioners (NPs) can improve vaccination rates by developing a trusting relationship with parents and being armed with information based on sound clinical evidence. AANP offers a number of patient education tools, continuing education (CE) courses, members-only practice briefs and other resources to help keep clinicians informed—and help them inform patients of the life-saving potential of vaccinations.
Read the rest of the blog on the AANP website by clicking here.