Vaccines

This holiday season, the must-have item for people of a certain age is a vaccine to protect against shingles, the painful skin condition caused by a reawakening of the chickenpox virus.

The number of cases worldwide leaped more than 30 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to the World Health Organization and the CDC. And they say the rise has roots in failures to vaccinate children.

Three dozen students have been infected at Asheville Waldorf School — which has among the very highest rates of parents claiming religious exemption from state vaccine requirements.

When 39-year-old Charlie Hinderliter got the flu last winter, he ended up in a medically induced coma and spent 58 days hospitalized. Serious, even fatal, complications can hit patients of any age.

That's one of the themes in the new book 'Between Hope and Fear: A History of Vaccines and Human Immunity.'

President Xi Jinping has promised serious punishment after a drug company was found to have faked production records for a rabies vaccine and sold a substandard infant vaccine.

Beyond annual flu shots, older adults need protection against shingles, pneumonia, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, federal health officials say. But many aren't getting vaccinated.

In 2017, the disease affected 21,315 people, compared to 5,273 in 2016. Last year, 35 people died in Europe because of measles. The World Health Organizations says unvaccinated people are a factor.