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At a time when the failure to immunize children is driving the biggest measles outbreak in decades, a little-known database offers one way to gauge the safety of vaccines. Over roughly the past dozen years in the United States, people have received about 126 million doses of vaccines against measles, a disease that once infected millions of American children and killed 400 to 500 people each year. During that period, 284 people filed claims of harm from those immunizations through a federal program created to compensate people injured by vaccines. Of those claims, about half were dismissed, while 143 were compensated. (Belluck and Abelson, 6/18)

Vaccines have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives in recent years. According to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccines have prevented more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children in a 20-year period. (Belluck and Abelson, 6/18)

By scanning the DNA of 3,600 children from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the team narrowed down the genetic profiles that help establish long-lasting immunity after vaccinations for two major bacterial diseases: tetanus and meningitis-causing MenC. In the future, they can use those profiles to tailor vaccines to an individual’s needs — reducing potential side-effects and predicting in advance how many doses a person might need before they take a shot. (Akpan, 6/17)

A state appeals court says a Bay Area physician under investigation by the Medical Board of California must turn over medical records of three youngsters he has exempted from vaccinations, an issue now being heatedly debated in Sacramento. Dr. Ron Kennedy of Santa Rosa works at an “anti-aging” medical clinic and is not the primary-care physician for two of the children he exempted, according to court documents. (Egelko, 6/17)