Alison Campbell • Jul 21, 2017 •
Chickenpox “parties”. They had their day – and that day was before the chickenpox vaccine came on the scene. Because chickenpox can be much worse in teens and adults, back in the day it did make sense to contract the disease in early childhood. In fact, it was almost unavoidable, given the epidemic nature of this virus. But a vaccine … Read More
Alison Campbell • Jul 13, 2017 •
In The Spinoff today, there’s an OP on the … ‘alternative’ … views of a member of our local City Council. It’s worth a read. I knew that the councillor was against the use of community water fluoridation (CWF) as a public health measure, but going by various postings she’s made in social media, we can add anti-vaccine to … Read More
Alison Campbell • Jul 12, 2017 •
It’s a bit concerning to hear of outbreaks of mumps in Auckland & the Waikato, as this suggests that in some areas the number of vaccinated individuals in the population has fallen below what’s needed to maintain herd immunity: see Siouxsie Wiles’ excellent post on this. One of the admins on my local suburb’s Facebook page … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Jul 02, 2017 •
As a parent, I know what it’s like to worry about whether you are doing the right thing for your child. When my daughter was born, I couldn’t quite believe that after just a few days in hospital we’d be going home in sole charge of a small infant. Didn’t they realise we were unqualified?! Aside from giving her a … Read More
Guest Work • Jun 13, 2017 •
By Rebecca Chisholm, University of Melbourne and Nicholas Geard, University of Melbourne Australia was declared measles-free in 2014. However, the recent importation of a case of measles into Australia from Indonesia illustrates the threat this disease still poses to Australians. It also underscores the importance of maintaining high vaccination rates against rare diseases to … Read More
Helen Petousis Harris • May 24, 2017 •
Dr Lance O’Sullivan I salute you. Kaitaia is a town in the far north of NZ, warm people, lovely beaches. Sadly immunisation coverage is low, infectious disease rates are high. Doctors like Lance O’Sullivan work their guts out to improve the health of the people they serve, including treating kids for illnesses that they should never have to suffer. Read More
Guest Work • Apr 14, 2017 •
Allen Cheng, Monash University and Kristine Macartney, University of Sydney As we head towards a southern hemisphere winter, many people are wondering if it’s worth getting the flu vaccine. Generally speaking, if you are vaccinated, you’re less likely to get the flu. But that’s not the whole story. For most healthy people, it’s … Read More
Guest Work • Mar 30, 2017 •
By Dave Hawkes, University of Melbourne The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was introduced in Australia in 2007 and New Zealand in 2008 to prevent cervical cancer. It was free for women up to age 26 in Australia and to all women under 20 in New Zealand. This is because 99.7% of cervical cancers are associated with the sexually transmissible … Read More
Helen Petousis Harris • Feb 14, 2017 •
As we enter a new year and school-based vaccination programmes get cracking the recycled crazy myths raise their ill-founded serpent heads again. This week it is the notion that Gardasil causes infertility by inducing Primary Ovarian Failure/insufficient (POF). It is popping up on social media – again. The fact is that Gardasil does not cause infertility. By infertility I refer to the … Read More
Helen Petousis Harris • Jul 28, 2016 •
Today PHARMAC announced their changes to funded vaccines. Basically they did what PHARMAC do, and within their given budget they negotiated the best deal they could with the suppliers to prevent as much disease as possible. After all, that is what we want them to do on our behalf. So who wins and who loses? The reality is, that like … Read More