Aproximadamente dos tercios de los padres con inclinaciones republicanas desconocen el aumento en los casos de sarampión este año, mientras que cerca de dos tercios de los demócratas sabían sobre el tema, según una encuesta de KFF publicada el miércoles 23 de abril.

Los republicanos son mucho más escépticos con respecto a las vacunas y tienen el doble de probabilidades (1 de cada 5) que los demócratas (1 de cada 10) de creer que la vacuna contra el sarampión es peor que la enfermedad, según la encuesta realizada a 1.380 adultos estadounidenses.

Alrededor del 35% de los republicanos que respondieron a la encuesta, realizada del 8 al 15 de abril por internet y por teléfono, aseguraron que la teoría desacreditada que vincula la vacuna contra el sarampión, las paperas y la rubéola con el autismo era definitiva o probablemente cierta, en comparación con solo el 10% de los demócratas.

Las tendencias son prácticamente las mismas que las reportadas por KFF en una encuesta de junio de 2023.

Sin embargo, en la nueva encuesta, 3 de cada 10 padres creían erróneamente que la vitamina A puede prevenir las infecciones por el virus del sarampión, una teoría que Robert F. Kennedy Jr., el secretario de Salud y Servicios Humanos, ha diseminado desde que asumió el cargo, en medio del brote de sarampión.

Se han reportado alrededor de 900 casos en 27 estados, la mayoría en un brote centrado en el oeste de Texas.

“Lo más alarmante de la encuesta es que estamos observando un aumento en la proporción de personas que han escuchado estas afirmaciones”, afirmó la coautora Ashley Kirzinger, directora asociada del Programa de Investigación de Encuestas y Opinión Pública de KFF. (KFF es una organización sin fines de lucro dedicada a la información sobre salud que incluye a KFF Health News).

“No es que más gente crea en la teoría del autismo, sino que cada vez más gente escucha sobre ella”, afirmó Kirzinger. Debido a que las dudas sobre la seguridad de las vacunas es factor directo de la decision de los padres reducer la vacunación de sus hijos, “esto demuestra la importancia de que la información veraz forme parte del panorama mediático”, añadió.

“Esto es lo que cabría esperar cuando la gente está confundida por mensajes contradictorios provenientes de personas en posiciones de autoridad”, afirmó Kelly Moore, presidenta y directora ejecutiva de Immunize.org, un grupo de defensa de la vacunación.

Numerosos estudios científicos no han establecido ningún vínculo entre cualquier vacuna y el autismo. Sin embargo, Kennedy ha ordenado al Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos (HHS) que realice una investigación sobre los posibles factores ambientales que contribuyen al autismo, prometiendo tener “algunas de las respuestas” sobre el aumento en la incidencia de la afección para septiembre.

La profundización del escepticismo republicano hacia las vacunas dificulta la difusión de información precisa en muchas partes del país, afirmó Rekha Lakshmanan, directora de estrategia de The Immunization Partnership, en Houston.

El 23 de abril, Lakshmanan iba a presentar un documento sobre cómo contrarrestar el activismo antivacunas ante el Congreso Mundial de Vacunas en Washington. El documento se basaba en una encuesta que reveló que, en las asambleas estatales de Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas y Oklahoma, los legisladores con profesiones médicas se encontraban entre los menos propensos a apoyar las medidas de salud pública.

“Hay un componente político que influye en estos legisladores”, afirmó. Por ejemplo, cuando los legisladores invitan a quienes se oponen a las vacunas a testificar en las audiencias legislativas, se alimenta una avalancha de desinformación difícil de refutar, agregó.

Eric Ball, pediatra de Ladera Ranch, California, área afectada por un brote de sarampión en 2014-2015 que comenzó en Disneyland, afirmó que el miedo al sarampión y las restricciones más estrictas del estado de California sobre las exenciones de vacunas evitaron nuevas infecciones en su comunidad del condado de Orange.

“La mayor desventaja de las vacunas contra el sarampión es que funcionan muy bien. Todos se vacunan, nadie contrae sarampión, todos se olvidan del sarampión”, concluyó. “Pero cuando regresa la enfermedad, se dan cuenta de que hay niños que se están enfermando de gravedad, y potencialmente muriendo en la propia comunidad, y todos dicen: ‘¡Caramba! ¡Mejor que vacunemos!’”.

En 2015, Ball trató a tres niños muy enfermos de sarampión. Después, su consultorio dejó de atender a pacientes no vacunados. “Tuvimos bebés expuestos en nuestra sala de espera”, dijo. “Tuvimos una propagación de la enfermedad en nuestra oficina, lo cual fue muy desagradable”.

Aunque dos niñas que eran sanas murieron de sarampión durante el brote de Texas, “la gente todavía no le teme a la enfermedad”, dijo Paul Offit, director del Centro de Educación sobre Vacunas del Hospital Infantil de Philadelphia, que ha atendido algunos casos.

Pero las muertes “han generado más angustia, según la cantidad de llamadas que recibo de padres que intentan vacunar a sus bebés de 4 y 6 meses”, contó Offit. Los niños generalmente reciben su primera vacuna contra el sarampión al año de edad, porque tiende a no producir inmunidad completa si se administra antes.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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The hulking factories are tucked away off the roads around the village of Ringaskiddy — operated by the likes of Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and BioMarin, whose plant featured signs last week touting a new facility “coming Q1 2027.”

The nearby town of Carrigtwohill crows that it’s grown “+400% over the past 20 years,” a surge driven by sites run by AbbVie and Gilead. 

And down in Kinsale, an Eli Lilly campus rises up out of the Irish countryside, a hub that recently underwent an $800 million expansion to meet the surging demand for the company’s obesity and diabetes drugs. Placards along the edge of the property celebrate Lilly’s sponsorship of the upcoming Kinsale 10-mile road race. 

“It’s absolutely everything to this area,” Jack White, a member of the County Cork council, told STAT, referring to the presence of pharma manufacturing here. 

President Trump is less fond of the industry’s operations in Ireland. As he seeks to impose tariffs on goods worldwide, part of a bid to bring companies back to the U.S. and generate jobs, he has specifically called out pharma manufacturing in this country and pledged to announce new levies on drugmakers. In his view, the U.S. trade imbalance with Ireland — one largely driven by pharmaceutical exports — is a particular injustice. As a result, the industry is now caught in his crosshairs, anxiously awaiting details from the administration.

“All of a sudden Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies, this beautiful island of five million people has got the entire U.S. pharmaceutical industry in its grasp,” Trump said in a March meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin marking St. Patrick’s Day. “I’d like to see the United States not have been so stupid for so many years, not just with Ireland, with everybody.”

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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New Delhi: After a long wait of 33 years, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has scheduled a high-level meeting to review and update the Central Residency Scheme, 1992. 

The meeting will take place on April 22, 2025, at 2.30 pm in Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi. It will be chaired by Dr Sunita Sharma, the newly appointed Additional Director General of Health Services (DGHS).

The government has invited several key officers and medical professionals to participate in the discussions. Noted attendees include- Dr. Sunita Mondal, Addl. DGHS, Dr. RP Joshi, Addl. DGHS, Dr. Anil Gurtoo, Former Hod, Medicine, LHMC, and Senior Consultant, SRBIMS, Dr. Sarita Beri, Director, LHMC & associated hospitals, Dr. Ajay Shukla, MS, ABVIMS & RML, Dr. Sandeep Bansal, MS, VMMC & SJH.

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Dr. Geetika Khanna, Principal, VMMC & SJH, Dr. Arti Maria, Dean, ABVIMS & RML Hospital, Dr. Anju Seth, Principal, LHMC & associated hospitals, Dr. Bhavuk Garg, Associate Professor, Directorate General of Health Services. Presidents of Resident Doctors’ Associations (RDA) from LHMC, VMMC & SJH, ABVIMS & RML, Dr. Indra Shekhar Prasad, President, RDA-AIIMS Delhi, Dr Aviral Mathur, President, FORDA and Dr Lakshay Mittal, President, UDF.

Residency today feels less like a learning phase and more like a test of endurance. Long shifts, poor pay, lack of basic necessities and poor working conditions left the resident doctors exhausted both mentally and physically. Therefore, the medical community has been consistently calling for reforms in the implementation of the existing residency scheme.

Back in the 1990s, the Supreme Court bench took cognisance of the exploitation that occurs of young doctors in government institutions and directed the formation of a Uniform Central Residency Scheme that would set up a defining base for all functioning of resident doctors in the country. Taking note of the same, the government formed a scheme in the year 1992.

This scheme addressed several issues, including the number of duty hours done by a resident doctor, the issue of weekly off, accommodation of residents, leave travel concessions, etc.

Medical Dialogues in 2015 reported on the Central Residency Scheme. The scheme specifically provides the maximum number of duty hours done by a resident doctor. In particular, it says continuous active duty for resident doctors will not normally exceed 12 hours per day. Subject to the exigencies of work, the resident doctors will be allowed one weekly holiday by rotation. The scheme also says that resident doctors will be provided with free furnished accommodation, free electricity and water within reasonable limits as may be fixed by the government from time to time.

"The junior Residents should ordinarily work for 48 hours per week and not more than 12 hours at a stretch subject to the condition that the working hours will be flexible as may be decided by the Medical Superintendents concerned keeping in view the workload and availability of doctors for clinical work," mentioned the scheme. 

Even though the scheme included these resident-friendly rules, they were never properly put into action, and young doctors are still found doing at least 70-80 hours of duty a week instead of 40 hours a week. 

For 33 years, the provisions meant to help resident doctors were ignored. Now, with the government finally announcing a plan to discuss the issue, there is a new sense of hope among resident doctors who can finally see the light and witness their dream come into reality. 

Sharing the information on social media, Dr Lakshya Mittal, National President of the United Doctors’ Front (UDF), expressed his support for the long-awaited reforms. 

Taking the matter to 'X', he tweeted, “After 33 years, a big step forward! After long and continuous efforts, @MoHFW_INDIA & @DghsIndia have called a high-level meeting on the Residency Scheme 1992 on 22nd April. UDF National President @drlakshyamittal and other key stakeholders invited to discuss long-awaited reforms. Time to protect our resident doctors. Let’s make it happen!”

The United Doctors Front (UDF) has been at the forefront of the fight for its implementation, tirelessly pushing for reform through multiple channels. The organisation has submitted repeated representations to the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, highlighted the issue across mainstream and social media, and collaborated with Medical Dialogues on a study exposing the harsh realities of excessive working hours.

RTI applications were also filed with both central and state governments, including several AIIMS institutions. Additionally, a detailed article by Dr. Lakshya Mittal, published in Rashtriya Sahara, brought much-needed attention to the matter. A writ petition is currently in preparation for submission to the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. 

Speaking to Medical Dialogues, Dr Mittal said, "For years, the core mandate of the 1992 Central Residency Scheme, including the critical directive of limiting working hours to 48 hours per week, was forgotten, leaving resident doctors overworked, undervalued, and vulnerable. We sincerely hope that the upcoming meeting, convened by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on 22nd April 2025, will take a decisive step toward the strict enforcement of the 1992 Residency Scheme. There must be clear accountability, and non-compliance should be treated as a punishable offence. The well-being of our resident doctors cannot be compromised any longer."

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