Did Vaccines Really Halt Killer Diseases?

Old Medical Equipment

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a lot of people lived in poverty without proper food, housing or sanitation. This meant that larger numbers of people died at those times from infectious diseases. The same is true in war times.

We no longer die in such great numbers because of the marvellous invention of the indoor flushing toilet, adequate food for everyone (for the first time in history), heating, decent housing and contraception. Contraception has ensured that most women only have 2 or 3 children, as opposed to 15 or 20, and so she is more able to bear a healthy child if she can take care of herself and her child, and not subject herself to numerous pregnancies.

Diphtheria:

Alcohol abuse is a causative factor in diphtheria, as is underlying disease.

It stated in ‘Medical World’, 1931, p.627, that ‘"…shows an interesting and conclusive fashion the definitive effect of school buildings, their construction and sanitation, on the spread of diphtheria. The highest incidence was observed in those schools where sanitation is most deficient and ventilation and lighting the least satisfactory. The brightest and airiest school showed the lowest incidence, and the incidence throughout all the schools placed them in exact order of sanitary virtue. Moreover, the incidence indicated the schools where malnutrition in the children is most conspicuous."

As we can see from the above, over-crowding and malnutrition played a key role.
By the time vaccinations were introduced, most of these killer infectious diseases had become more benign.

The vaccine is also known not to be effective in many cases, and may actually cause the spread of the disease.

According to Minutes of the 15th Session (November 20-21, 1975) of the Panel of Review of Bacterial Vaccines and Toxoids with Standards and Potency (data presented by the US Bureau of Biologics, and the FDA):‘For several reasons, diphtheria toxoid, fluid or absorbed, is not as effective an immunizing agent as might be anticipated. Clinical (symptomatic) diphtheria may occur . . . in immunized individuals--even those whose immunization is reported as complete by recommended regimes . . . the permanence of immunity induced by the toxoid . . . is open to question.’

Medics have always known this vaccine doesn’t work and have been writing about it since it was invented. For instance, in the ‘Practitioner’, April 1896, it was written ‘that the serum did not, to any appreciable degree, prevent the extension of the disease to the larynx; all the severe cases died, and the good result in the lighter ones was attributable to the mild type of the epidemic." The doctor also states that, at the Hospital of Bligdam, Copenhagen, "the mortality from diphtheria remains the same after, as it was before.’

Dr. Joseph Winters published a book, ‘Clinical Observations upon the Use of Anti-Toxin in Diphtheria’, in which he stated: ‘percentage of mortality is not only misleading, but is absolutely worthless unless accompanied by the actual number of cases reported and the actual number of deaths." He also declares that "the serum has an injurious effect, and will certainly be abandoned.

"Also, the famous Dr. Hadwen wrote in his booklet, ‘The Anti-Toxin Treatment of Diphtheria: In Theory and Practice’, that in 1895 in Berlin the mortality rate from diphtheria was 15.7% (before any vaccination). By 1900 (after vaccination) this figure had risen to 17.2%.

According to Metropolitan Asylums Board Annual Reports, 1895-1910, the death rate from Diphtheria in 1910 was 9.80% in those who had received anti-toxin and only 2.99% in those who had not received it.

In more recent years there have also been numerous studies of ‘failure’ of DPT vaccine to ‘immunize’ against the diseases it was designed to prevent. As an example, here are some studies:

Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 179, April 1999; 915-923. "Temporal trends in the population structure of bordetella pertussis during 1949-1996 in a highly vaccinated population "Despite the introduction of large-scale pertussis vaccination in 1953 and high vaccination coverage, pertussis is still an endemic disease in The Netherlands, with epidemic outbreaks occurring every 3-5 years." One factor that might contribute to this is the ability of pertussis strains to adapt to vaccine-induced immunity, causing new strains of pertussis to re-emerge in this well-vaccinated population.Vaccination against whooping-cough.

Efficacy versus risks (The Lancet, vol. 1, January 29, 1977, pp. 234-7): Calculations based on the mortality of whooping-cough before 1957 predict accurately the subsequent decline and the present low mortality… Incidence [is] unaffected either by small-scale vaccination beginning about 1948 or by nationwide vaccination beginning in 1957… No protection is demonstrable in infants."

The Lancet Volume 353, Number 9150 30 January 1999 Risk of diphtheria among schoolchildren in the Russian Federation in relation to time since last vaccination Quote:In 1993, the Russian Federation reported 15229 cases of diphtheria, a 25-fold increase over the 603 cases reported in 1989.1 The incidence rate among children 7-10 years of age (15·7 per 100000) was twice that of adults aged 18 years or over (7·9 per 100000).

81% of the affected children aged 7-10 years had been vaccinated with at least a primary series of diphtheria toxoid, and most had received the first booster recommended to be given 12 months after completion of the primary series.

Shimoni, Zvi; Dobrousin, Anatoly; Cohen, Jonathan; et al. "Tetanus in an Immunised Patient" British Medical Journal Online (10/16/99) Vol. 319, No. 7216, P. 1049;Israeli researchers present the case of a 34-year-old construction worker who was hospitalized after having a reported epileptic fit and experiencing flu-like symptoms. The patient had a low-grade fever, but was alert and coherent. Any attempts to speak or get up on the second day resulted in attacks of risus sardonicus, opisthotonus, and trismus. The patient was diagnosed with tetanus and given 2000 U of human tetanus immunoglobulin. Further treatment was provided, and after 15 days, the patient had stopped taking diazepam and ventilatory support was withdrawn. The man had been fully immunized against tetanus, and had received booster shots five and two years before being hospitalized.

Another reason for the fall in infectious disease rates is that diseases are classified according to vaccine status. For instance, tonsillitis and mild Diphtheria have identical symptoms: severe sore throat, swollen glands in the neck, bright red tonsils and a green/yellowish or grey discharge at the back of the throat.

With severe Diphtheria, this discoloured film is impossible to remove and it may block off the airway and cause respiratory problems. Essentially, in milder cases there is no difference between tonsillitis and Diphtheria and vaccinated patients would simply be recorded as tonsillitis. Also, doctors do not test for Diphtheria anymore so they wouldn’t know whether it was present or not, and most doctors do not know what symptoms to look for to diagnose it, so all of this would skew statistics.

TUBERCULOSIS

This is also a sanitation disease and can be caused by vaccination polluting the internal system.The vaccine doesn’t work and never has and the world’s only ever double-blind controlled trial on vaccination (BCG) in the early 1970s which proved it didn’t work. However, it took almost 30 years of administering useless vaccine to people before they stopped its use.The study stated: ‘The efficacy of the TB vaccine is 0%’ (Bulletin of the WHO, Tuberculosis Prevention Trial, 57 (5); 819-827, 1979).

Here are some other studies showing that TB vaccine causes the disease:Foster DR. Miliary tuberculosis following intravesical BCG treatment. Br J Radiol. 1997 Apr;70(832):429. No abstract available. PMID: 9166085 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]Foster DR. Miliary tuberculosis: a complication of intravesical BCG treatment. Australas Radiol. 1998 May;42(2):167-8. No abstract available. PMID: 9599839 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]Marrak H, et al.[A case of tuberculous lupus complicating BCG vaccination]. Tunis Med. 1991 Nov;69(11):651-4. French. No abstract available.PMID: 1808776; UI: 92230052.Magnon R, et al. [See Related Articles] Disseminated cutaneous granulomas from BCG therapy. Arch Dermatol. 1980 Mar;116(3):355. No abstract available.PMID: 7369757; UI: 80174030.Vittori F, et al. [Tuberculosis lupus after BCG vaccination. A rare complication of the vaccination].
Arch Pediatr. 1996 May;3(5):457-9. French. PMID: 8763716; UI: 96297887.

According to Dr. Surinder Bakhshi, Consultant in Communicable Diseases:‘BCG, the most used vaccine in the world since it was introduced more than 50 years ago, has made no difference to TB in countries which rely solely on it to halt its spread. It has never been claimed to prevent TB, but even the evidence of its protectiveness is patchy and historical. And there have been no studies of its effectiveness in the past three decades.It may leave an ugly scar and, indeed, do more harm than good. Further, as TB, with rare exceptions, is largely a disease of the elderly in the Western world, vaccinating children doesn’t make sense.
TB in Britain is a legacy of its empire. As long as people from third world countries come and settle here, there cannot be a let-up in its spread.People who come from high prevalence countries will continue to harbour TB germs in their bodies until they die.
The World Health Organisation has set its face against vaccination and routine screening. It advocates effective disease management — early diagnosis and supervised treatment — to contain it and avoid its spread to the host community. Vaccination wastes resources, gives false hope and distracts attention from what needs to be done.’(Letter, the Sunday Times, 15 April 2001).

Isolation worked in the old days and its still one of the most effective means of preventing disease.

Other diseases like Scarlet Fever and Typhus disappeared to virtually zero without vaccination.

Chickenpox, which is not vaccinated for in this country and in some other countries, is also declining in incidence. A report showed that there are now less cases in Wales, where there is no vaccine:

Objective: To examine the epidemiology of chickenpox in Wales from 1986 to 2001.

Design: Descriptive analysis of chickenpox consultations reported by the Welsh general practice sentinel surveillance scheme for infectious diseases, compared with annual shingles consultation rates from the same scheme to exclude reporting fatigue and data from a general practice morbidity database to validate results.

Setting: A total of 226 884 patients registered with one of 30 volunteer general practices participating in the sentinel surveillance scheme.

Main outcome measures: Age standardised and age specific incidence of chickenpox.

Results: Crude and age standardised consultation rates for chickenpox declined from 1986 to 2001, with loss of epidemic cycling. Rates remained stable in 0–4 year olds but declined in all older age groups, particularly those aged 5–14 years. Shingles consultation rates remained constant over the same period. Data from the morbidity database displayed similar trends.

Conclusion: General practitioner consultation rates for chickenpox are declining in Wales except in pre-school children. These findings are unlikely to be a reporting artefact but may be explained either by an overall decline in transmission or increased social mixing in those under 5 years old, through formal child care and earlier school entry, and associated increasing rates of mild or subclinical infection in this age group.

Source: Declining incidence of chickenpox in the absence of universal childhood immunisation, Arch Dis Child 2004;89:966-969 doi:10.1136/adc.2002.021618

Measles is a disease which is mild in most cases. The figures the DOH use are from the third world, not of Western children. They also include children who have pre-existing conditions, those who are malnourished and those whose measles was treated with anti-pyretics (which is known to cause measles side-effects.

In 1967, Christine Miller from the National Institute for Medical Research, London, published a paper on measles, stating: ‘Measles is now the commonest infectious disease of childhood in the UK. It occurs in epidemics in which the total number of cases usually exceeds half a million...there is no doubt that most cases in England today are mild, only last for a short period, are not followed by complications and are rarely fatal.’

Also in the Practitioner, November 1967: ‘some physicians consider that measles is so mild a complaint that a major effort at prevention is not justified.’

After the measles vaccine was introduced in 1968, followed by the MMR in 1988, the disease suddenly became more serious. According to the BMA Complete Family Medical Encyclopaedia, 1995: ‘measles is a potentially dangerous viral illness...prevention of measles is important because it can have rare but serious complications...it is sometimes fatal in children with impaired immunity.’

Clearly, you can see vaccine marketing techniques at play here.

According to the DOH, in their book ‘Immunisation Against Infectious Diseases’,‘Before 1988 (when the MMR was introduced) more than half the acute measles deaths occurred in previously healthy children who had not been immunised.’ They quote the study C L MILLER. Deaths from measles in England and Wales, 1970-83. British Medical Journal, Vol 290, 9 February 1985, but if you actually read this study (which they are relying on parents not doing), you will find it actually says:
‘No attempt was made to establish further clinical details, vaccination history, or social class.’ - i.e. they didn’t know the vaccine status of the individuals. And: ‘90% of deaths in those previously normal occurred in those over the age of 15 months, when the vaccines are usually given’. These children were probably vaccinated prior to dying of measles as they were of vaccination age.

Nearly half the children who died were ‘grossly physically or mentally abnormal or both. The pre-existing conditions in the 126 previously abnormal individuals included cerebral palsy (24), mental retardation (20), Down's syndrome (19) and various congenital abnormalities (22). There were nine children with immune deficiency or immunosuppression, and 19 aged 2-8 with lymphatic leukaemia, a number of them in remission.’

In normal healthy children whose measles has not been treated with anti-pyretics, and whom are well nourished, I would say measles is a good thing.

Diseases of childhood are there for a reason. They release toxins from the body, they mature the child’s developing immune system, which is why they occur in childhood.

According to Jayne Donegan, a medical GP, “our immune system had matured and developed purely because of catching the diseases we are trying to eradicate.

In my opinion, normal childhood diseases are basically good for us. They teach our immune system what is "us" and what is foreign.

All our childhood diseases were killers when they first came along. They wiped out thousands because we had no natural immunity against them. Diseases infect us and, in turn, strengthen our immune system.

I vaccinated both my children with the MMR jab, but this was before I started my research into the problems associated with it.”

Often, when a child has had a childhood disease such as Chickenpox or Measles, they will pass more developmental milestones such as suddenly beginning to read, or learning new words, and any existing problems seem to reverse after a bout of measles (for instance, asthmatics suddenly recover).

My own daughter had measles as a toddler and was not ill again for more than a year afterwards, not even with a cold. I believe this was because measles was a strengthening milestone for her.

In the case of tetanus, unlike other childhood diseases, it isn’t possible to gain natural immunity to tetanus. If you’ve had it once, you can have it again. The body does not produce antibodies to Clostridium Tetani. Vaccination is the act of injecting a viral or bacterial substance into the body to make it produce antibodies to that disease. However, since no natural antibodies can be made, then there is no possible way that artificial antibodies could be made either. If the disease cannot give you protection, then how can a vaccine? It is likely that any raised antibody level seen after vaccination is the result of adjuvants (toxic heavy metals which are added to increase the body’s antibody response). In the case of tetanus vaccine, this substance is aluminium.

Antibodies themselves are not an indication of immunity – this is just one function, which is vastly different from whole body immunity.

According to Vieira et al: ‘This minimal protective antibody level is an arbitrary one and is not a guarantee of security for the individual patient.’ (Vieira, B.l.; Dunne, J.W.; Summers, Q.; Cephalic tetanus in an immunized patient. Med J Austr. 1986; 145: 156-7).

Here are a number of other studies of disease occurring in the vaccinated:
Bentsi-Enchill AD, et al. Estimates of the effectiveness of a whole-cell pertussis vaccine from an outbreak in an immunized population. Vaccine. 1997 Feb;15(3):301-6. PMID: 9139490; UI: 97227584.
D. C. Christie, et al., "The 1993 Epidemic of Pertussis in Cincinnati: Resurgence of Disease in a Highly Immunized Population of Children," New England Journal of Medicine (July 7, 1994), pp. 16-20.MMWR November 05, 1993 / 42(43);840-841,847 Diphtheria Outbreak -- Russian Federation, 1990-1993 Despite high levels of vaccination coverage against diphtheria, an ongoing outbreak of diphtheria has affected parts of the Russian Federation since 1990 (1); as of August 31, 1993, 12,865 cases had been reported. This report summarizes epidemiologic information about this outbreak for January 1990- August 1993, and is based on reports from public health officials in the Russian Federation.

Shimoni, Zvi; Dobrousin, Anatoly; Cohen, Jonathan; et al. "Tetanus in an Immunised Patient" British Medical Journal Online (10/16/99) Vol. 319, No. 7216, P. 1049;
Rev. Soc. Bras. Med. Trop., vol. 28, no. 4, Oct-Dec 1995, pp. 339-43 "Clinical and epidemiological findings during a measles outbreak occurring in a population with a high vaccination coverage" : "The history of previous vaccination [in very early childhood] did not diminish the number of complications of the cases studied. The results of this work show changes in age distribution of measles leading to sizeable outbreaks among teenagers and young adults."Clin. Invest. Med., vol. 11, no. 4, August 1988, pp. 304-9: "Measles serodiagnosis during an outbreak in a vaccinated community" ( from a group of 30 measles-sufferers displaying IgM antibodies during the acute phase of illness, 17 had been vaccinated for measles. All 17 experienced measles again, showing IgM antibodies indicating acute infection. "A history of prior vaccination is not always associated with immunity nor with the presence of specific antibodies."Aaby P, et al. (1990) Measles incidence, vaccine efficacy, and mortality in two urban African areas with high vaccination coverage. J Infect Dis. 1990 Nov;162(5):1043-8. PMID: 2230232; UI: 91037153.

Boulianne N, et al.(1991) [Major measles epidemic in the region of Quebec despite a 99% vaccine coverage]. Can J Public Health. 1991 May-Jun;82(3):189-90. French. PMID: 1884314; UI: 91356447.

All vaccination does is alter the expression of diseases and weaken our immune systems because we don’t have as much opportunity to experience the wild disease. Whilst we have less infectious (self-limiting) illness, we have more chronic (long-term) illness.

1 in 3 people now have cancer. This figure is INSANE. Back in the 18th century, cancer was virtually unheard of. Meningitis was extremely rare, now many more children get it. So many people are puffing on ventolin inhalers, with allergies to nuts and strawberries and everything else. Many people have weird skin conditions, and there are dozens more auto-immune diseases than there were before vaccination, like HIV, Lupus, MS.

According to Cambridge University, 1 in 58 children is autistic and there are more with ADHD. These are poisoning and brain damage conditions. This amounts to 2% of the population that are now brain damaged by this!

Vaccination has turned us into a nation of weaklings that cannot cope with anything. That is why scientists are trying to invent a ‘dirt’ vaccine to strengthen children’s immune systems.
With regard to the tribes people dying of diseases, they were white man diseases and we went in, invaded their home and their way of life (that they had been living for hundreds of years quite happily) and exposed them to our diseases, which obviously they had not encountered before.

With continued exposure, the disease would become less severe and the tribes people would not die in great numbers, as is the course of all disease if we are allowed to develop natural immunity. Personally I also feel that we in western society had no right to interfere in the way of life of the tribes people and we ought to be ashamed of this aspect of our history.

(This article was originally written for a blog on vaccination, in response to some comments from parents).

Soldier Paralysed By Smallpox Vaccine Fights For His Life and Compensation

The VA won't pay for one marine's injury.

Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez deployed to Iraq in 2006 when he was 20 years old. He enlisted in the Marine Corps fresh out of high school and was enthusiastic about serving to protect the lives of others. He never thought that he would almost lose his own life from something as routine as a vaccination.

"I started having trouble walking," Lopez said. "There was a numbness that started in my feet and gradually worked it's way up."

After being overseas only nine days, Lopez had trouble with his legs tingling. Literally overnight he was paralyzed. The sensation worked its way up, and soon he couldn't use his arms.

"When the morning came everyone woke up and found me laying on the floor and I wasn't able to move my legs at all," he described.

Doctors in Balad, Iraq scrambled to find out the medical mystery taking over his body.

"The next day they sent him to Germany, and I got a call from the doctor in Germany who told me that they weren't sure if he was going to make it. And they wondered if I could come to Germany and try to get him to respond to me," Joe's mom, Barbara Lopez, said.

He was on life support, and doctors had no choice but to put him in a medically-induced coma. Barbara and her older son Steven flew to Germany to find out shocking news.

"Well when I fist woke up they said the vaccine caused your body to attack itself," Lopez said.

The smallpox vaccine that he got from the Department of Defense just days before deployment was the reason for it all. Lopez had an adverse reaction causing incredible damage. The bottom line: his immune system was eating away at his nervous system, causing the nerves to deteriorate.

The family flew to Bethesda Hospital in Maryland where Lopez remained in the ICU for three weeks. Doctors argued over what treatment to give him, but eventually decided on the controversial IVIG treatment. It slowly worked bringing him out of the coma.

"They told me he might be a vegetable," Barbara said. "They wanted me to watch for brain damage and question him...see what he remembered...see if he was still him."

Each day she would question him and have him blink once for the answer yes and twice for no. Days later he started talking. The greatest news was that Lopez remembered who he was and everything about his life.

Despite this good news, he had another huge obstacle to overcome.

"One of my doctors came and said 'you'll never be able to walk again.'"

However, slowly Lopez started rebuilding his strength. He came back to his hometown of Springfield and endured intense physical therapy. He also spent more than a year in a wheelchair.

"No one ever thinks they'll be in a wheelchair, and I've always had that 'it's not going to happen to me' mentality. Now it's the opposite," Lopez said.

Today he can walk but not for very far or for very long. He takes 10 to 15 pills each day and will need to for the rest of his life. The VA paid for his medical bills, but there is more to the story.

The Lopez family had thousands of dollars in non-medical bills - and the VA refuses to pay. Barbara had to leave her job for several months to care for her son, and they had to install a wheelchair lift in their home. There are also other expenses he will have for the rest of his life that Barbara worries about. After speaking with other Marines and their families, she heard about Traumatic Servicemembers Group Life Insurance or TSGLI compensation.

TSGLI is a government program that is designed to compensate injured service members for injury from traumatic events. To the dismay of his family, Lopez was denied coverage.

The VA Department of Insurance Chairman, Stephen Wurtz, said Lopez was denied because his injury didn't come from a traumatic combat event, but from a needle. He also said the government can't afford to cover injuries from vaccines.

"Any additional claims under TSGLI are paid by the government, and the government would now be paying that many more claims during a period of conflict," Wurtz said.

Lopez said what upset him even more is the fact that they amended the TSGLI bill after he applied to specifically disqualify vaccine injuries from compensation. The Lopezes visited Missouri U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill to explain their fight for fair compensation. McCaskill is now working on a bill that would extend coverage to service members injured by vaccines.

"It would give him the same coverage, and frankly I really think we need to take care of this young man and his family," Sen. McCaskill said in a satellite interview with KOMU. "He was willing to take care of us."

Through all of this Lopez is not just sitting around. He now races a specially made hand cycle in the Marine Corps Marathon each October to raise money for other Marine families. His mom, Barbara participates in the 10K.

Reflecting back on his journey to recovery the past three years, he said the hardest part is the unknown: "Just the not knowing. Not knowing if I would ever walk again."

The love and support of his mother Barbara was constant through all that unknown.

"She was the first person I saw when I woke up, and she was there everyday," he said.

Source: KOMU HD, reported by Laura Nichols, 3 November 2009.

1948 Pediatrics Article Questioning 'Considerable Risk' from DPT Vaccine

Inspection of the records of the Children's Hospital for the past ten years has disclosed 15 instances in which children developed acute cerebral symptoms within a period of hours after the administration of pertussis vaccine. The children varied between 5 and 18 months in age and, in so far as it is possible to judge children of this age range, were developing normally according to histories supplied by their parents. None had convulsions previously."

"Twelve of the children were boys and three were girls, a sex difference also encountered in relation to other substances, such as lead, causing gross injury to the developing nervous system. At inoculation time, the children varied in age between 5 and 18 months. Developmental data were obtained in detail on all but two of the children, whose mothers simply stated that they had developed normally. Reference to the case histories showed that such objective activities such as sitting, walking, and talking had appeared in many of the children prior to the inoculations; and the regressions or failure of further development occurred after the encephalopathies [Any disease or symptoms of disease referable to disorders of the brain] in several instances. In so far as it was possible to judge none of the children were defective prior to their acute illness."

"In common with many other biologic materials used parenterally [not by mouth], an important risk of encephalopathy attends the use of prophylactic pertussis vaccine. The mechanism whereby the encephalopathy is produced is not elucidated by the present study. The universal use of such vaccine is warranted only if it can be shown to be effective in preventing encephalopathy or death from pertussis itself in large groups of children. If avoidance of the inconvenience of the average attack of pertussis is all that is expected, the risk seems considerable. Efforts to diminish the hazard by modification of the vaccine or new methods of administration seem indicated."

Source: Randolph K. Byers, M.D. and Frederic C. Moll, M.D., Encephalopathies Following Prophylactic Pertussis Vaccine, Pediatrics, April 1948, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 437-456

Prescription Drugs are Second Leading Cause of Accidental Death in the USA

In a study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers came to a surprising conclusion: hospitalizations for poisoning by prescription medication has increased by 65 percent from 1999 to 2006. The rates of unintentional poisoning– from prescription opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers in the U.S. has surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of unintentional injury death.

Simply put, this means that poisoning from prescription drugs is now the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in the U.S.

“Deaths and hospitalizations associated with prescription drug misuse have reached epidemic proportions,” said the study’s lead author, Jeffrey H. Coben, MD, of the West Virginia University School of Medicine. “It is essential that health care providers, pharmacists, insurance providers, state and federal agencies, and the general public all work together to address this crisis. Prescription medications are just as powerful and dangerous as other notorious street drugs, and we need to ensure people are aware of these dangers and that treatment services are available for those with substance abuse problems.”

Dr. Coben states that while the data shows a fast-growing problem, there’s an urgent need for more in-depth research on these hospitalizations. The study was able determine whether the poisonings were diagnosed as intentional, unintentional or undetermined. While the majority of hospitalized poisonings are classified as unintentional, notable increases were also shown for intentional overdoses associated with these drugs, most likely reflecting their widespread availability in community settings.

Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-surprising-second-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-us.html