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Mumps: Virus Causes Puffy Cheeks and Sometimes, Serious Complications - 03/27/2024

The bottom line: Mumps is a viral contagious disease. People know mumps for patients’ swollen cheeks and jaw, but patients also suffer fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite. Outbreaks occur every year in the United States and Texas. The MMR vaccine protects people against this disease.


TMA Grants to Help Your Practice Improve Local Vaccination Rates - 03/18/2024

Apply for a grant. Vaccines Defend What Matters (formerly Be Wise – Immunize) is TMA’s integrated, multimedia public health education and advocacy effort to overcome vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccination rates in Texas. 


New Law Prohibits Employer COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates, With Exceptions - 02/28/2024

Thanks to advocacy by the Texas Medical Association, guardrails for patient safety and practice viability are included in a new state law that prohibits employers, including physician offices and health care facilities, from mandating COVID-19 vaccines among employees.


New Poster Encourages Flu Vaccination Amid COVID-19 - 02/28/2024

“COVID-19 is here, but so is the flu.” That is the message of a new downloadable poster available from the Texas Medical Association’s Be Wise – Immunize program to help you stress the need for flu vaccination, this year more than ever.


Measles: Updated Information and Resources Available to Fight Rising Cases - 02/21/2024

As measles cases continue to rise in Texas and across the U.S., the Texas Medical Association and Texas Hospital Association have created a document to help physicians and other health care professionals combat the highly contagious respiratory illness. The document provides the latest recommendations for diagnosing and reporting measles, immunizations, infection prevention and control, and post-exposure prophylaxis and exclusion.


TMA Grants Will Help Texans Fight Flu - 02/21/2024

As early flu season predictions suggest this one might be rough, people in communities across Texas will be protected from influenza, or flu, thanks to grants from the Texas Medical Association’s (TMA’s) Be Wise – ImmunizeSM program. TMA has awarded more than $30,000 in grants to physicians, TMA Alliance (TMAA) volunteers, and medical student chapters to provide flu shots at no cost to uninsured and underinsured Texans in their hometowns.


Pregnant? Make Sure You’re Vaccinated to Protect Yourself, Baby From Disease - 02/21/2024

Vaccinations before and during pregnancy are important to protect both mother and baby. Three vaccinations are recommended: flu, Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis), and MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella).


Apply for a Grant to Help Promote Vaccines - 12/14/2023

More than ever, medicine needs its soldiers to promote the safety, efficacy, and importance of vaccines.


FDA Approves New RSV Vaccine, COVID-19 Booster - 10/19/2023

Physicians will have a new vaccine in their arsenal to help protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a timely development as cold, flu, and COVID-19 illnesses tend to converge and ramp up this time of year and become difficult to differentiate.


Leading in Crisis: Diana L. Fite, MD, Carried TMA During COVID-19 Pandemic - 10/03/2023

Diana L. Fite, MD, carried TMA during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Build Immunization Awareness During August - 09/11/2023

If you weren’t already aware, August is National Immunization Awareness Month. As a physician, you’re aware of how important vaccines are for public health. But some of your patients might not know or understand the benefits of getting vaccinated. Whether you’re talking to parents of young children, senior citizens, or anyone in between, TMA’s Be Wise – Immunize has some tools you can use.


Online Anti-Vaxxers Don’t Deter Texas Physician - 09/11/2023

Frisco anesthesiologist Zach Jones, MD, doesn't let antivax Internet trolls stop him from spreading vaccination message.


Update: Ten Measles Cases Reported in Texas - 09/11/2023

Ten cases of measles have been reported in Texas this year, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said in a statement Wednesday. The 10th case is an adult who was visiting Guadalupe County from the Philippines, where there is an ongoing measles outbreak, the statement said. 


Using Social Media to Curb HPV on Campus - 09/11/2023

With funding help from the TMA Foundation, the association’s philanthropic arm, more than 100 students at Angelo State University in San Angelo and Tyler Junior College in Tyler received free HPV shots at their schools’ health fairs March 5 and 7.


Talk To Your Patients About: Mumps - 09/11/2023

The March issue of Texas Medicine highlights mumps, which spreads easily through sneezing and coughing, or just touching infected surfaces. A vaccine, first introduced in 1967, reduced U.S. cases by 99 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Talk to Your Patients About: Tetanus - 09/11/2023

The April issue of Texas Medicine highlights tetanus, which causes painful spasms that typically occur in jaw muscles but can wrack the entire body, and can be fatal.


Talk to Your Patients About: Meningococcal B - 09/11/2023

Texas Medicine recently highlighted Meningococcal B, a bacterial infection that can affect the blood, brain, and spinal cord with lasting effects like learning difficulties, hearing loss, or limb amputation. The Meningococcal B vaccine is relatively new, having won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2014.


Texas is No. 1 in “Hotspots” For Vaccine Exemptions - 09/11/2023

Houston, Fort Worth, Plano, and Austin are among the cities in the nation with the highest number of kindergartners who have not received vaccinations because of nonmedical reasons, according to the study published this week in the journal PLOS Medicine.


Talk to Your Patients About: Hepatitis B - 09/11/2023

Texas Medicine recently highlighted Hepatitis B, a viral liver infection that spreads through contact with blood and other bodily fluids. Hepatitis B has two stages: acute and chronic. The acute stage is often symptomless, making the disease easy to spread unknowingly. The acute stage normally resolves within six months. But if it becomes chronic, the condition can cause lifelong health problems like cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and liver failure.


Most Texans Support Mandatory Childhood Vaccinations, Yet Another Poll Shows - 09/11/2023

Although an anti-vaccine movement has continued to grow in Texas, the vast majority of voters support requiring vaccinations for Texas children, results from a poll released this week show.


Talk to Your Patients About: Polio - 09/11/2023

February’s Texas Medicine magazine highlights polio, a virus that was mostly  eradicated in the United States by 1979, thanks to a vaccine. However, we still vaccinate children here because the crippling disease remains a problem in Asia and Africa, and it could spread when people travel.


Talk to Patients About: Hib - 09/11/2023

Talk to your patients about Haemophilus influenzae type b – or Hib, which, despite its name, does not cause influenza. However, Hib causes several severe illnesses, particularly meningitis, mostly in children younger than 5.


Talk to Patients About: Diphtheria - 09/11/2023

 Diphtheria infected more than 200,000 and killed 15,000 in the U.S. in 1920, but the growing use of vaccines during that decade caused rates to drop, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says. In the 1940s, the diphtheria vaccine was combined with tetanus and pertussis, and the shot became routine for children. Between 2004 and 2017, only two U.S. cases were reported, CDC says.


Watch Herd Immunity at Work - 09/11/2023

A new simulation  shows the brutal intensity of a measles outbreak after the introduction of just one sick person to a community.


TMA Pushes Back Against Planned Vaccine Payment Cuts - 09/06/2023

As the influenza virus continues to spread statewide, the Texas Medical Association and other specialty societies have taken a stand against a plan to cut by almost 36 percent payments to physicians who administer a flu vaccine in their offices.