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Canberra Today 12°/15° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Turning away from needles

IT’S easy to understand why many parents find their baby’s first immunisation a bit daunting.

No one likes the idea of inflicting pain, no matter how fleeting, on their child; or the thought of some artificial substance being injected into that perfect little body.

And over the past few years, there has been plenty of controversy and many scary stories about vaccinations.

I remember my own dread and a sleepless night before I took my baby boy for his first vaccination.

But with each trip to the doctor for that dreaded needle, the dread got less and the relief that he was covered from getting a whole range of nasty diseases grew.

By the time it was number two child’s turn, there were no dramas and it was all pretty perfunctory.

So, the other day, when I was talking to a dad who had not immunised his son and wanted to rely on “natural remedies”, I sort of understood where he was coming from.

But it also got me wondering whether the whole “go natural, if it’s natural its good thing” might be going a bit far – especially in the case of vaccinations.

For us, after we had done some research, we knew we had to bite the bullet and get our kids immunised.

We accepted that there was a very low risk of adverse reaction and agreed with medical advice that the benefits of immunisation far outweighed this.

According the Australian Network of General Practice vaccination rates have fallen, over the last seven years with only 83 per cent of four-year-olds currently being vaccinated.

However, it appears that due to the past success of Australia’s childhood immunisation programs, contagious diseases that once routinely killed and maimed are now rare so that unvaccinated children are still protected by a measure of “herd immunity”.

But not getting your children immunised can still have disastrous consequences.

Recently, Dr Jane Collins, a GP writing in “The Sydney Morning Herald”, noted that there are now a number of teenage and young adult Australians who have never been immunised who are now travelling overseas.

She advised parents that had not had their children immunised to tell them before they travel so they could get “routine” vaccinations.

She also warned of the increased risk to even those who stay home, citing the death of an unvaccinated 22-year-old woman who caught diphtheria from a friend recently returned from abroad.

It would seem in the last few decades as things “natural” have come to be seen as the safe, tried and true options; it’s easy to forget that modern science has extended our life span by decades and enabled us to leave behind so many of the terrible diseases that killed, maimed and destroyed the lives of many children.

It does amaze me that so many people are prepared to turn away from the benefits and security provided by the past two centuries of progress in medical science.

So, please, parents seek advice (at least some of it medical) and do your research, otherwise old enemies can make a reappearance with tragic consequences.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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