It gives a good visual overview of the places where vaccination uptake levels are low and hence the likelihood of diseases spreading once they get into the population is high. The term given to protection from disease outbreak when a large percentage of the population is vaccinated is “herd immunity”. In simple terms, it means those who are not vaccinated because they are either too young or may have allergies or be immunocompromised, are protected by other people.

The concept of “herd immunity” as a mechanism for protecting others is often rejected by anti-vaxers, perhaps because they won’t acknowledge they are putting other people’s kids at risk by choosing not to vaccinate.

For an easy to understand explanation of how herd immunity works check out the video on the website Chain Of Protection.

It’s a stark reminder in light of another death from pertussis this week, this time of a 5 week old baby boy in Adelaide – the first since 2001. South Australia has been experiencing a pertussis epidemic for over 12 months now. According to statistics from the SA Department of Health, during the period of 1 January 2010 to 15 June 2010, a total of 2,277 cases were reported, compared to 1,493 cases reported for the same period last year. Being so young, the boy was too young to be vaccinated and may have caught the bacteria from an adult carrying the disease.

Many adults and parents are not aware that their whooping cough vaccine does not last forever and as such, they may need to get a booster shot – especially if they are caring for young children. Some governments offer free booster shots, but the SA government is still considering had lagged behind in this respect.

A story from Adelaide Now reports that SA Health chief medical officer Professor Paddy Phillips said the department was waiting for the release of a report into whooping cough vaccinations.

“There’s a Federal Government working party looking into the issue of subsidy for a whooping cough vaccine for adults … when that party reports, we will take up their recommendations,” he said. The party has been working for a long time it would seem. The McCafferys met with both federal and state governments over a year ago, following the death of their daughter from pertussis, to ask them to instigate an education campaign. Let’s not beat around the bush, while departments pass the buck & blame, kids are dying.

For the Adelaide boy’s parents, vaccination was not an option, but some parents are choosing not to vaccinate. Part of the reason for this trend is the amount of misinformation on the internet – and many people rely on “Google University” to get information these days.

The two lowest areas for vaccine coverage in Australia are the Northern Rivers Region (covering the Byron Bay area and the AVN) and the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, demographically two very different areas. One is characterised by alternative lifestyle families (one could say hippies) and the other well educated, affluent white collar workers. Whilst the reason the former choose to not vaccinate is probably clear, the other is not. Whatever the reason, vaccination has been a victim of it’s own success in many ways, as people become complacent about the threat of communicable disease. We don’t see kids in calipers or iron lungs these days, so out of mind out of sight.

Yet, there is plenty of accurate information on the internet for concerned parents if you look in the right places. I wrote this article for the launch of the new Australian Skeptics website over 12 months ago but it still serves as a good resource for links to government websites and other accurate information.

HUG ME! I'm vaccinated pendant from SurlyRamics

One example of bad advice, is that offered by homeopaths who are allegedly recommending “unproven” herbal remedies, including belladonna and phosphorus, for whooping cough.

According to an article on Adelaide Today, homeopaths say their treatments can prevent and cure whooping cough, while doctors say that is “complete rubbish”. The newspaper contacted the Australian Homeopaths Association for comment but did not receive a response. For the uninitiated, homeopathy is water which contains no active ingredients at all, so of course it can’t cure or treat any disease. Well, apart from dehydration of that is.

Not that pesky scientific evidence has got in the way of claims by homeopaths before. Our favourite Aussie fruit-loops over at Homeopathy Plus! issued an e-newsletter this week claiming that criticism of homeopathic vaccines (also known as homeoprophylaxis) was “..an orchestrated campaign in which those hostile to homeopathy are trying to stop patients accessing it through the NHS…” and “Homeopathy has been repeatedly used for protection or treatment during world epidemics and outbreaks. It is inexpensive, quickly distributed, easily administered and safe. Remedies exist for all diseases.”

Yes well, citation needed. Actually none of that is accurate.

Meanwhile, the ninth infant has died from pertussis in California in an epidemic about to break records. And the education campaign about the dangers of pertussis promised by the Australian government has not materialised. This is a preventable tragedy and one that needs action now.

You know the type;

“Was Dana a premature baby? Was Dana breastfed? As a baby suposedly (sic) receives antibodies from the mum in the first eight weeks of life. Did Dana receive the Hepatitus (sic) B injection? Did Dana receive the Vitamin K injection? Did Dana have any reactions to these injections? Was Dana on any medication, etc?.”

Thereby, strongly inferring that pertussis, or whooping cough was not the cause of Dana’s death. I find this highly offensive and told @watf as much.

These type of questions were part of the reason why Toni and David McCaffery spoke out in the first place. They were appalled that the AVN, and in particular Meryl Dorey, were suggesting that the official cause of death (according to the Dept. of Health) as pertussis, was simply a plot by authorities and government to force people to get vaccinated.

But, as we have come to expect with the AVN, just about everything that involves conventional medicine is deemed a conspiracy of some sort; Big Pharma is only interested in money and not our health; they want to keep us sick to make more money; vaccines have never been tested, vaccination causes disease, etc etc. These are the kind of people who wouldn’t surprise you if they told you that the world is flat, the Holocaust didn’t happen and that 911 was a government/inside job.

But, this post was so offensive, Toni McCaffery decided she had well and truly had enough of the misinformation, half-truths and outright lies spread by these people. She responded to @watf to tell them precisely that, the facts.

I am amazed by the strength and resolve of Toni McCaffery at a time like this.  But, as she says below, she has had enough of the AVN and associated cronies and their nasty intent to somehow prove that pertussis was not the cause of Dana’s death.

It was. It’s that simple. Pertussis can be deadly, for every 1 in 200 children. Three babies have died from infections in Australia this year.

Wake up anti-vaxers. And learn some respect.

Toni’s comment is re-posted below, with her permission. You can see the entire comments thread here.

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@where are the facts

Where is your sense of human decency? Your comments are the most hateful and hurtful words that any grieving parent could read.

As Dana’s parents, we are absolutely outraged that groups such as the AVN are intent on proving that Pertussis did not kill her and is not dangerous. We expected opposition to vaccination, but it is unacceptable and despicable that we have to ‘prove’ that Pertussis killed her. Haven’t we suffered enough – now we have to defend the very thing that killed her.

We are outraged that without our knowledge, Meryl Dorey rang the Director of the NCAHS Public Health Unit on 12 March seeking details on Dana’s death and contended the department had misled the public.

Even after I told Meryl what happened to Dana at the debate, a few weeks afterwards I found an AVN blog with members making false claims that stated they had information she was sick from birth, immune-compromised from the HiB vaccine or died as a result of the antibiotics or medical treatment she received.

Not only is no-one privy to this information, it is wrong and extremely distressing. In the latest Living Wisdom, Meryl got every fact wrong about Dana – her age, when she died, where she might have caught it, when the last death was and uses language to downplay the seriousness.

I am pleading with the AVN to leave my beautiful daughter alone and stop this misleading chatter. And I plead to other parents, please do not expose your child to this dangerous disease.

Don’t you think as Dana’s parents, watching every agonising moment of her death, we would know what killed her. We undertook extensive research and spoke with the specialists over several weeks to understand what happened.

Let me be very clear. She was born in perfect health, was breastfed and was putting on weight. Nothing is sacred. We decided to speak out after reading comments in media and blog sites that dismissed the severity of whooping cough, claims of ‘only one baby’, criticisms that we had not acted quickly and that I had not passed on immunity to Dana through breastfeeding.

Reading this blog is almost too much to bear!

Let me be very, very clear – Pertussis can and does kill 1 in 200 babies. Sadly, THREE babies have died in Australia this year – we are the only family to go public and I wouldn’t recommend it. If your baby is ‘the one’ – it is unstoppable.

The intensive care experts were in contact with experts all around the world and tried everything. I stood and watched them try to save her and did the unthinkable and wished she had cancer instead, because maybe then she would have had a chance.

Meryl might call what we have done a fear campaign. We call it a reality check. We only wished someone had warned us of the epidemic as we would have done everything in our power to protect Dana from catching it.

We saw the healthiest, most beautiful baby suffer the most agonising death – and there was nothing we could do.

We will not stand by and let this happen to another family.

Please STOP DEBATING our daughter’s death. Show some respect and leave Dana in peace. We are so sorry we have exposed our beautiful girl to such hurtful people.

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Please note: Comment threads that are deemed offensive, at the discretion of the author, will be removed from this post out of respect. Comments are now closed.