Neal A. Halsey, MD is a pediatrician, with subspecialty training in infectious disease

Infectious disease

Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...

s, international health and epidemiology

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...

. Currently, Dr. Halsey is a Professor of International Health and Director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, in Baltimore, Maryland.

He also has a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and serves as Co-Director of the Center for Disease Studies and Control in Guatemala.

As part of a career largely dedicated to promoting vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

s, in 1999 he spearheaded the precautionary movement to remove thimerosal from pediatric vaccines.

Education

Halsey received his MD in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

. He completed his internship in Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado in 1972; his residency in Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Medical Center in 1975. Dr. Halsey was an EIS Officer 1975-77; a Preventive Medicine Resident 1976-78 and a fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado 1978-80.

Research and professional experience

Prior to his current positions at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Halsey started his teaching career at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, in the Departments of Pediatrics (School of Medicine) and Tropical Medicine (School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine). Halsey was also Medical Epidemiologist and Chief of Surveillance Activities at CDC and General Medical Officer and Medical Officer in Charge at the Indian Health Service at Fort Yates, North Dakota.

Halsey has published more than 200 scientific articles in peer review

Peer review

Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...

ed journals regarding vaccines and vaccine safety and authored or co-authored nearly 40 book chapters. He has contributed information to the Institute of Medicine

Institute of Medicine

The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...

(IOM) and the Public Health Service (PHS) for reviews of individual vaccine safety issues, provided expert testimony and reviews of vaccine injury

Vaccine injury

A vaccine injury is an injury caused by vaccination.Allegations of vaccine injuries in recent decades have appeared in litigation in the United States. Some families have won substantial awards from sympathetic juries, even though most public health officials believed that the claims of injuries...

 legal claims involving the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), vaccine makers, and the Food and Drug Administration

Food and Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

 (FDA). He served with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the Immunization Division, and served on the Research and Development Group of the World Health Organization

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

 (WHO) Expanded Program on Immunization. He has been a member or advisory member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices provides advice and guidance on effective control of vaccine-preventable diseases in the U.S. civilian population. The ACIP develops written recommendations for routine administration of vaccines to the pediatric and adult populations, along with...

 (ACIP), and was a member of the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics

American Academy of Pediatrics

The American Academy of Pediatrics is the major professional association of pediatricians in the United States. The AAP was founded in 1930 by 35 pediatricians to address pediatric healthcare standards. It currently has 60,000 members in primary care and sub-specialist areas...

 (AAP) 1989-99; COID Chair 1995-99.

Halsey's research is primarily directed toward the prevention of infectious diseases with the safest vaccines possible. He has conducted or participated in epidemiological studies of vaccine-preventable diseases and phase I, II, and III vaccine trials of hepatitis A

Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is an acute infectious disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus , an RNA virus, usually spread the fecal-oral route; transmitted person-to-person by ingestion of contaminated food or water or through direct contact with an infectious person...

, hepatitis B, inactivated polio virus, pertussis

Pertussis

Pertussis, also known as whooping cough , is a highly contagious bacterial disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Symptoms are initially mild, and then develop into severe coughing fits, which produce the namesake high-pitched "whoop" sound in infected babies and children when they inhale air...

, Haemophilus influenzae type B, tetanus

Tetanus

Tetanus is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive, rod-shaped, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani...

, Lyme disease

Lyme disease

Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto is the main cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii cause most...

, rotavirus

Rotavirus

Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children, and is one of several viruses that cause infections often called stomach flu, despite having no relation to influenza. It is a genus of double-stranded RNA virus in the family Reoviridae. By the age of five,...

, Argentina Hemorrhagic Fever, human papillomavirus (HPV) and influenzae vaccine viruses. Measles

Measles

Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...

 control has been an interest of Halsey's, and he supports ongoing measles and polio eradication efforts.

Halsey has worked internationally in many developing countries including Haiti, Peru, Guatemala, Kenya, Thiopia and Pakistan. A lot of his works in Haiti focused on maternal and child health issues. He collaborated with Reginald Boulos on many of these papers.

Institute for Vaccine Safety [www.vaccinesafety.edu]

Halsey is the director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety, which was established in 1997 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to provide information to parents, physicians and journalists about vaccines and vaccine safety issues.

Select publications

• Navar-Boggan AM, Halsey NA, Golden WC, Escobar GJ, Massolo M, Klein NP. Risk of Fever and Sepsis Evaluations Following Routine Immunizations in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. (submitted to J Perinatology Aug 2009.)

• Einstein MH, Schiller JT, Viscidi RP, Strickler HD, Coursaget P, Tan T, Halsey NA. Clinician's guide to HPV immunology: knowns and unknowns. Lancet Infect Dis. 2009 Jun;9(6):347-56. Review.

• Asturias EJ, Mayorga C, Caffaro C, Ramirez P, Ram M, Verstraeten T, Clemens R, Halsey NA. Differences in the immune response to hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines in Guatemalan infants by ethnic group and nutritional status.Vaccine. 2009 Jun 2;27(27):3650-4. Epub 2009 Apr 7.

• Salmon DA, Teret SP, MacIntyre CR, Salisbury D, Burgess MA, Halsey NA. Compulsory vaccination and conscientious or philosophical exemptions: past, present, and future. Lancet. 2006 Feb 4;367(9508):436-42. Review.

• Khan AJ, Gebreselassie H, Asturias EJ, Agboatwalla M, Teklehaimanot R, Halsey NA, et al. No evidence for prolonged excretion of polioviruses in persons with residual paralytic poliomyelitis in Ethiopia, Pakistan and Guatemala. Biologicals, 2006;34:113-116.

• Omer SB, Pan WK, Halsey NA, Stokley S, Moulton LH, Navar AM, Pierce M, Salmon DA.. Nonmedical exemptions to school immunization requirements: secular trends and association of state policies with pertussis incidence. JAMA. 2006 Oct 11;296(14):1757-63.

• Asturias EA, Dueger EL, Omer SB, Melville A, Nates SV, Laassri M, Chumakov K, Halsey NA. Randomized Trial of Inactivated and Live Polio Vaccine Schedules in Guatemalan Infants. 2007 Sep 1;196(5):692-8. Epub 2007 Jul 23.

• Moss WJ, Halsey NA. The effects of maternal malaria and HIV-1 infection on the effort to eliminate neonatal tetanus [Editorial]. J Infect Dis. 2007 Aug 15;196(4):502-4. Epub 2007 Jun 29.

• Dueger EL, Asturias EJ, Matheu J, Gordillo R, Torres O, Halsey NA. Increasing penicillin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole resistance in nasopharyngeal Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from Guatemalan children, 2001-2006. Int J Infect Dis. 2008 May; 12(3):289-97. Epub 2007 Nov 26.

• Morris SK, Moss WJ, Halsey NA. Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine use and effectiveness. Lancet Infectious Diseases 2008 Jul;8(7):435-43.

• Wood RA, Berger M, Dreskin SC, Setse R, Engler RJM, Dekker CF, Halsey NA. Hypersensitivity Working Group of the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Network. An Algorithm for Management of Patients With Hypersensitivity Reactions Following Vaccines. Pediatrics Pediatrics. 2008 Sep;122(3):e771-7.

• Halsey NA. The human papillomavirus vaccine and risk of anaphylaxis [Commentary]. CMAJ. 2008 Sep 9;179(6):509-10. Epub 2008 Sep 1. Erratum in: CMAJ. 2008 Sep 23;179(7):678.

• Khan AJ, Hussain H, Omer SB, Chaudry S, Ali S, Khan A, Yasin Z, Khan IJ,d Mistry R, Yar IY, White F, Moulton LH, Halsey NA. High incidence of childhood pneumonia at high altitudes in Pakistan: a longitudinal cohort study. Bull World Health Organ 2009;87:193–199

• Asturias EJ, Mayorga C, Caffaro C, Ramirez P, Ram M, Verstraeten T, Clemens R, Halsey NA. Differences in the immune response to hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines in Guatemalan infants by ethnic group and nutritional status.Vaccine. 2009 Jun 2;27(27):3650-4. Epub 2009 Apr 7.

External links

• VaccineSafety.edu - Institute for Vaccine Safety (Dr. Halsey's homepage)
• VaccineSafety.edu - 'Prepared Testimony of Neal A. Halsey M.D. Before the House Committee on Government Reform Safety and Efficacy Issues' (October 12, 1999)
• AltCorp.com - 'The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory', Arthur Allen, New York Times (November 10, 2002)