kath n kim

Just thought I'd post this for those of you with children, who may be concerned about the effects of vaccination on your children. (Australia is very pro-vaccination) Many people seem to think that it is compulsory to have your children vaccinated if you want to migrate to Australia, this is not so.
Before everyone who is pro-vaccination jumps on me, please remember, we don't all have the same views
If there is anyone out there, having concerns about this, please get back to me for more info.
K n K

webgum

Thanks KnK. This one has been bothering me the last few weeks. My son has only had tetanus and polio (is 4) and I have wondering whether I would have to have a rush programme of unwanted immunisations before I can get him accepted in kindergarten. In my hazy memory, when I first researched the whole thing there we loads of info about a family somewhere in Oz whose child/children were excluded from school due to no jabs. Went to court and everything.
After all the stress I went through deciding not to (personal choice - would not dream of persuading others) I feel it could be rather ironic if I was cornered into doing it.
Give me any info you have!!

NickyC

It would be sad to see children suffering unnecessarily from those dreadful diseases that were once so common - and the more parents who refuse immunisation, the more common those diseases will become again.

Your non-immunised children are only safe because most other parents do the right thing and choose immunisation. Let's hope that you stay in the minority - for your own children's sake.

renth

Exactly. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Have you seen those anti vaccination web sites? They remind me of those paranoid, conspiracy theory sites about the Apollo missions never happening.

Not getting your kids vaccinated is highly anti-social.

NickyC

Yup. One of the anti-immunisation brigade's theories is that the whole deal is supposedly a conspiracy between the drug companies and the government.

I stayed once with a family where the vacuous mother refused to immunise her baby against whooping cough - (trendy at the time). The baby caught it, of course (too many other vacuous mothers in the area) and listening to the poor child coughing and whooping all night was heartbreaking.

jensteve

My son didn't have the whooping cough jab, it was one of those strange decisions that I still wonder about now. At the time we lived on an estate where there was above average problems with children being vaccinated. the local doctors where blamed for the majority of these cases as they always had the attitude that no matter what it was best to immunise. Well when I went into their office and asked if due to Epilepsy in the family whether my son should not have it they decided he best not have it. Whether they thought another affected child on the same esate was probably not a good idea but they didn't argue or comment on it ever again.
Then we get over here and they are giving boosters to all yr 8 children, as they have now decided it wears off while the child is still young.
It makes me wonder when you hear adults with hacking coughs whether this is whooping cough, lets face it none of the adult population is therefore covered by their childhood vaccinations. I know I've had some awful coughs, where I have done the "whoop" bit makes me wonder.
Jenny

kath n kim

Do you also realise that many of those "dreadful diseases" were actually on the decline BEFORE mass vaccination was introduced Mainly due to better living conditions and sanitation.
That mass vaccination in Africa has been blamed for the extremely high incidence if AIDS there, they were also vaccinated using a serum containing contaminated monkey kidney cells proved to be cancer/tumour causing...the authorities have since admitted this, the contaminated serum was also actually used in other countries, Australia included. (Although this particular batch was actually administered to children in the '60's, and the Government concluded that the risk is minimal....... )
My children are safe because I choose to do some research before giving them vaccinations against diseases unnecessarily
If you choose to vaccinate your children, good luck to you, you are entitled to your opinion.
I AM ALSO ENTITLED TO MINE.
K n K

kath n kim

renth, you are so correct that a little knowledge IS a dangerous thing.......
How much knowledge do you actually have about vaccinations
If you know more than me, please share it.
Here are some of those websites which you were speaking of......
www.vaccine-onfo.com
www.jabs.org.uk
I don't know if these are some of the ones you were speaking so acrimoniously about, but they do assist parents to make an informed (all cases are backed up with hard evidence) decision, and not vaccinate their children blindly just because they think they should, and they are unaware of the facts or alternatives.
K n K

kath n kim

Hi Jenny,
Most vaccinations do actually wear off whilst the children are still quite young, others, the medical profession are still not sure about because they haven't been available long enough for them to know the long term effects on the human body...........
As you say, most adults are not covered anymore by any vaccinations which they were given as a child anyway.
Many people refused the whooping cough vaccine, for the very reasons which you point out. (Isn't a mother's intuition a wonderful thing!!) It has since been admitted that the vaccine did cause a few problems in certain children........
K n K

jad n rich

Australia has an interesting slant on immunisation. Until recently it had a very low rate of children being immunised, then some form of family benefit was linked to immunisation and only paid if the kids had been immunised, now we have high rates of immunisation, money talks it seems. Whooping cough was one of the reasons for this plan, it was coming back in australia.

The melbourne museum shows a video of a child with the disease, its horrific. My children were already immunised but if they had not been it would have changed our minds. However its a personal decision I can only decide for my children.

The meningacoccil vaccine was available in australia again there had been several outbreaks and deaths, but you had to pay for it yourself, most didnt and waited till the government made it free, I could not believe so many would put $80 or whatever it cost over a potentially fatal disease for the reason "government should pay".

kath n kim

Hi webgum,
I too had my children vaccinated against polio, probably for the same reasons as you, so I won't bother going into detail
They have not had many of the other immunisations which are on the Australian programme though, and I have not encountered too many problems about it, however.....
We were "encouraged" by the doctors here to put them on a "catch-up programme" soon after we arrived, warning us that if we didn't, we may encounter problems with kindergartens, schools, centrelink payments etc....When I quite firmly declined the offer I was told that I would have to be referred to a paediatrician to make sure that we understood the implications of our decision, (this we had to pay for privately, of course!) After our appointment with him, we were told that we were obviously making an informed decision, and that as we were not going to get them done we would have to sign a "conscientious objection form". This is then logged on the "immunisation register" we were also given a copy to keep, and it means that no centrelink payments are affected. My son attends pre-school in a private kindergarten where there has never been any problem about him not being vaccinated, although they did inform me that if there was an outbreak of an infectious/contagious disease, he would have to be excluded from the school, (fine by me..!!) I have been recently putting his name down for a placement in (state) junior schools in our area, none have asked for his vaccination records, and when I have mentioned it (not wanting it to cause me problems at a later date) I have been told that it shouldn't be a problem, as long as, if there is an outbreak of any of these diseases, again, he would be excluded.
(As if I'd WANT him there if there was!!!)
Maybe private schools have a different policy, but this is my experience of state schools. I think most have far more important issues on their hands, than whether or not one of their pupils has had all their vaccinations!
If I can help anymore, please, just ask!
K n K

NickyC

You are indeed entitled to yours. But I bet your hoping that your views don't catch on in a big way. It's only because the majority of parents are doing the socially responsible thing of immunising their children - that you have the luxury of being able to pick and choose.

When the USSR was desintegrating there was a shortage of diptheria vaccine in the country. Not many people made the effort to immunise against it as it was supposedly 'unnecessary' - people had really forgotten what diptheria was like. Guess what happened? 150,000 cases of diptheria and 15,000 deaths. Sweden stopped immunising against 'unnecessary' whooping cough in the late 70's, but soon started again when 75% of unimmunised children caught it.

renth

Quote from www.vaccine-info.com

"I am a medical writer and medical historian who never went to medical school."

All this anti vaccination propaganda is based on untested scientific hypotheses and made by people on the David Icke end of the scientific spectrum.

None of their theories about vaccination, particularly the MMR/Autism link have ever stood the scientific test of peer review.

scoobydoo

I agree with you nicky.

Since 2000 outbreaks of measles have occured in the UK due to the amount of people who chose not to give their children the MMR. I read a nursing article recently which stated that if this current trend of lower level vaccination continues, measles will start to re-establish to endemic proportions.

Look at that dreadful disease smallpox. That was eliminated by the use of vaccination.

So it looks like the non-imunised children will not remain safe forever as immunisation ideally needs to be at a take up rate of at least 80% to be succesfull.

I would not risk not immunising my children.

banjo

I reckon Tony Blair is to blame...... should just come out and say whether (not so little anymore) Leo had MMR or not. I think his fence-sitting created a lot of indecision.

However......I think they do seem to love vaccinations here. When our little Aussie was born at the end of March they wanted to jab him for just about everything and he was only a day or so old. 1 needle incase I had bacteria, another for vitamin k, another for me being rhesus negative and another for Hep B. By the time they got round to asking about the last one I just said no way. No more. How much can a little fella take? And honestly.....what is the likelihood of a tiny mite catching Hep B?!

Since then he's caught up though as the pre-school he will be going to requires that immunisations be up to date. It is a personal choice, but I would rather cope with side-effects than not have them at all.