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.

To my surprise and relief, it was positive.

The story centred around the recent death of four week old Dana McCaffery from whooping cough just two weeks out from being eligible for the vaccine. Dana lived in an area of the North Coast of New South Wales where there is a high rate of non-vaccinated children, hence the level of herd immunity is low, allowing for the spread of the disease amongst the population. The tragedy of the tiny baby’s death was highlighted by the fact that she was too young to be vaccinated, but died from a completely preventable illness.

Reporter Rebecca Maddern, emphasised the importance of herd immunity, using the example of a very young boy who had undergone a heart transplant and was therefore not strong enough to be immunised. He relies upon herd immunity as his only mechanism for prevention of childhood ilnesses. Stock footage of children with polio in calipers drove the message home that we need not go back to times when kids were crippled by polio, or died from measles.

In the interest of journalistic balance, we were obligated to endure the opposing view, hence, enter Meryl Dorey from the Australian Vaccination Network. These people spread misinformation and lies about the safety of vaccination, with no remorse. As professional scaremongers, they go by the catch phrase, “love them, protect them, never inject them”. Whilst I would prefer they are not given a platform whatsoever some of the stuff spouted from Meryl on tonight’s show was enough to make you question her state of mind.

Toni McCaffery; “..I did not want to be seen as a vaccine crusader, I just wanted to be a Mum”. David McCaffery; “Nor is it our responsibility, it’s the responsibility of government and they need to take charge”.

When talking about childhood diseases, including whooping cough, Meryl Dorey said her mother used to just put her out with sick kids so she could get infected, and thereby gain natural immunity;

“You didn’t die from it 30 years ago and you’re not going to die from it today”.

Funny that, when the entire story is based on the death of a four week old girl from whooping cough.

When the reporter asked her; “What if one of your children got whooping cough? (to which she responded they had), “And did you seek help from the medical profession?”, she has this gem to offer;

“No, we treated whooping cough homeopathically and none of us were sick for more than 2 weeks. My vaccinated children got it and my unvaccinated children got it. And none of us were sick for more than 2 weeks and it was nothing more than a bad cough”.

(According to the story, three out of her four children are not vaccinated).

She continued her scaremongering by bleating the much debunked vaccines-cause-autism line;

“The reports that we get are children who have seizures, children who become brain damaged, children who develop diabetes, who develop autism, these are serious reactions after vaccination”

The report only briefly touched upon “vaccine damaged kids” with one teenager explaining he became sick one week after his first round of immunisations, but this was very brief. Mostly, we heard from doctors and scientists, such as a pediatrician describing his heart break at watching a baby turn blue from coughing. Professor Peter McIntyre from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance also encouraged parents to vaccinate.

The only criticism I have of the story is that Meryl’s comments about treating whooping cough with homeopathy were left unchallenged. In my experience, many people perceive homeopathy to be a herbal treatment, and therefore assume it has some medicinal effect. Perhaps this was the case for Rebecca, since she failed to question Meryl about this quackery.

One wonders if Meryl’s children did in fact have whooping cough, since she described their symptoms as nothing more than a “bad cough”. A bad cough is not I the way I would describe the distressing footage which aired earlier in the story, of a baby with whooping cough gasping for air and screaming. I raised this issue with Rebecca in a congratulatory email I sent her and suggested she might like to follow it up with a story on homeopathic vaccination.

In the introduction to the story, Sunday Night host Chris Bath called the vaccination debate “..a wake-up message to parents which needs to end right now”.

Well done Channel 7 for a well researched and accurate story. Please email the show here and let reporter Rebecca Maddern and the producers know that they are to be congratulated for accurate scientific reporting. Also there is a poll on the homepage asking whether vaccination should be compulsory. Please vote here.

I am concerned that both Rebecca Maddern and Toni and David McCaffery may be subject to abuse from the anti-vax crowd as a result of this story.

I have already heard that the anti-vaxers are “hysterical” about the way they and their cause was portrayed in the story. A source revealed this response from Meryl Dorey who described the show as “The most horrible, one-sided report I have ever seen” and “it was even worse than I’d feared“. She ended her rant with “I despair about the cover up, the children who will be injured by these shots and the way in which our organisation and the families who have been hurt by vaccines have been portrayed“.

Time to mobilise the troops. Please help by emailing Sunday Night, voting in the poll, and linking to my blog from Twitter, Facebook or your own blog.

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For more information about the anti-vaccination movement in Australia, please see my Dr Rachie Reports blog, the Anti-Vacc Movement, an Australian Perspective.

Toni and David McCaffrey have set up a website in honour of Dana here and a Facebook page here.