Friday, May 1, 2009

New Zealand immunisation disgrace

I heard a disturbing statistic on TV3's news last night - only 77 per cent of New Zealand's children are immunised. That puts us way behind the US and Australia (according to the story - I'm trying to find exact percentages) and puts us in real danger of a whooping cough (pertussis) and/or measles epidemic.

The good news is this information came from a Ministry of Health media release which quotes statistics for 2005. These were gathered, in part, as a baseline measurement before the implementation of a National Immunisation Register, and is a count of full immunisation of two years old.

New figures are due out any day now, and - fingers crossed - should show an increase in this amount.

The bad news is that, even in my wildest dreams, it's going to be nowhere near the 95 per cent required to make sure herd immunity covers all of the potentially devastating illnesses vaccinations usually cover.

But what really grinds, what really makes me sick to the bottom of my stomach, was the appearance of Sue Claridge from the Immunisation Awareness Society.

These are her exact quotes:

“For example in 2005 only 13 children died from infectious diseases. There were 90 children who died from car accidents. there were 30 children who died from cancer.

“If we're spending our public health dollar, where can we best spend it to improve the health of our children and prevent mortality."

Hey Sue? Sue? Do you think that the 77 per cent of children who are fully immunised actually stops some deaths? Actually, I don't want to even guess what her answer would be to that question. I hope no parents of the 13 who tragically died were watching.

As so to the Immunisation Awareness Society. Aside from the fact that their website is hideously broken in Firefox on Ubuntu 9.04, it sets out to present itself as a pro-choice website - they want parents to have the full facts before immunising their children.

Who could disagree with that, eh?

Ah, but there's a clue on the home page. Yes, it's a quote from a man named Archie Kalokerinos, or Dr. Archie Kalokerinos, M.D. as he's advertised there.

Apparently he was a proponent of Linus Pauling's discredited 'high vitamin C doses cures lots of illnesses' theory, and believes vaccination is a deliberate genocide against indigenous Australians and used to spread HIV in Africa.

Yes, that sends a positive, pro-choice message doesn't it?

Anyway, there are small sections of the site which support pro-choice, but overall it's an anti-vaccer's heaven. - there's even a quotation from anti-vaccine activist and author Eleanor McBean which says the only reason immunisation is still done is because all of the big pharmaceutical companies make too much money to stop. Ah, where would we be without conspiracy theories.

Oh, I almost forgot. There are some links to pro-vaccination websites on their site, but they're right at the bottom - underneath the Alternative Medicine section, including homeopathy.

Anyway, I'll keep digging, and I'll post the updated statistics on New Zealand vaccination once they're released.

In the meantime, hopefully anyone reading this can help pass on the pro-immunisation message.

Note: I have two children, one aged six and one aged four. Both are fully immunised and suffered nothing other than a sore arm and a little grouchiness post-injection. Just to prove I walk the walk, so to speak.

Addendum: I should, of course, have praised TV3 for actually covering this issue. I'm hopeful that this is the first of many times vaccination is covered in the New Zealand media.