This article is part one of a two-part series discussing the vaccine safety system. It looks at arguments made by anti-vaccination activists and suggests ways for all consumers to better understand and benefit from immunisation.

Sections include:

• The price of success - before vaccines for diphtheria, measles, mumps, pertussis, polio, rubella (German measles), tetanus, hepatitis B, pneumococcus, and Hib were introduced there nearly 2 million reported cases of disease per, now because of vaccination many diseases have been elimintated...
• How vaccines are tested - typically a new vaccine is tested on 10,000 - 20,000 people before the FDA approves it, is this enough to reliably detect rare complications?...
• Two safety lapses - in two recent cases, vaccine-safety agencies were slow to act on emerging problems...
• The antivaccine argument - arguments and suppositions of antivaccine activists...
• Compensating the injured - the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was created in 1988, funded by a small tax on every lot of vaccine, it is an insurance plan against childhood-vaccine injuries...
• Recommendations - provides information to make an informed choice...

Click here for the full article online.