Scientists warn of risks of not vaccinating

Updated November 26, 2012 09:04:00

Australia's top vaccination specialists are warning parents about the risks of not immunising their children. They're launching a booklet that outlines the facts about vaccination in an effort to calm fears stoked by misinformation online.

Source: AM | Duration: 4min 11sec

Topics: vaccines-and-immunity, child-health-and-behaviour, infant-health, health-policy, australia


TONY EASTLEY: Twelve of Australia's top immunisation specialists are warning parents that they're risking deadly consequences if they choose not to vaccinate their children.

The number of babies not fully immunised is now one in 12 in Australia - a rate which scientists believe may allow diseases like measles, diphtheria and whooping cough to regain a foothold.

The scientists say the internet and its plethora of information and opinion is not helping.

Ashley Hall reports.

ASHLEY HALL: It may be out of sight, out of mind. Australia's immunisation program has been so successful over the years that the community has little awareness of the deadly consequences of some of the worst infectious diseases.

TONY BASTEN: What you do hear about from the next door neighbour or if you're a parent with children at primary school is the fever or the febrile fit that occurred after a jab.

ASHLEY HALL: Emeritus professor Tony Basten of Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research has been a clinician and a scientist for more than 40 years and he says the evidence is clear on the benefits of immunisation.

TONY BASTEN: The risk of fever for example after a measles vaccine is 30 times less than the risk of fever after actually getting the disease. It's the relative benefits that we're talking about.

And if one looks at the scientific evidence, which has accumulated over the last 20 to 30 years, we believe, and I certainly go along with my colleagues on the committee, that the benefits in general outweigh the risks.

ASHLEY HALL: But it seems a growing number of Australians simply don't believe that's true.

In 1999, 4,271 children weren't fully vaccinated. Today that number is more than 30,000. And that's putting the whole community at risk.

TONY BASTEN: One in 15 people still die from diphtheria. If one is vaccinated against diphtheria, protection is very, very good indeed. And until recently there haven't been any cases for years and there simply aren't any deaths that have been recorded for a very long time.

ASHLEY HALL: Tony Basten says many parents have been spooked by the enormous amount of misinformation about vaccinations on the internet.

TONY BASTEN: I think it was 1998 when a paper was published in the British highly reputably medical journal The Lancet suggesting that there was a link between autism and being given the MMR measles containing vaccine. The suggestion was that the virus got into the intestine and stopped the absorption of nutrients that are needed for normal brain development.

Extensive studies have been done comparing the autism rate in vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. There is no difference. And that paper is now accepted as fraudulent and it has been withdrawn by the publishers.

ASHLEY HALL: What about allergic diseases? Can vaccines cause them? Asthma for example?

TONY BASTEN: In the case of asthma, which is naturally an anaphylaxis, the generalised allergic reactions, I think it's fair to say that vaccines do not cause the disease per se. The real issue is whether or not a vaccine will precipitate an attack in somebody who is susceptible.

And there the answer would appear to be that if per 100,000 doses of vaccine between 0.2 and four allergic episodes occur, which is very low and is acceptable.

ASHLEY HALL: He says doctors and researchers have a tough job to do selling the facts.

TONY BASTEN: It's up to us as doctors and scientists to make sure that we do communicate better.

ASHLEY HALL: The 12 researchers are launching a booklet today in an effort to calm the fears of parents and correct the record on the risks of vaccination.

It will be available on the Australian Academy of Science website.

TONY EASTLEY: Ashley Hall with that report.