High cost of kids with flu is avoidable, study shows Kids are not immune - Vaccination rates fall

to dangerously low level

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News High cost of kids with flu is avoidable, study shows By SARAH PRICE 455 words 30 July 2006 Sun Herald SHD First 38 English 2006 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. Not available for re-distribution. FLU in children costs the community three times as much as illnesses caused by other viruses, research has found, prompting calls for a publicly funded flu vaccination program for children. The average cost of a flu infection was $741 a child compared with $253 for respiratory illnesses caused by other viruses, said researcher Dr Stephen Lambert. "Children are a powerhouse of the influenza infection," said Dr Lambert, of the vaccine and immunisation research group with the School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. The results of Dr Lambert's study on preschool children will be presented to the Public Health Association of Australia's National Immunisation and Asia Pacific Preventable Diseases Conference, which starts today in Sydney. "Cost is something we need to think about when making an argument for a free vaccination program for children," Dr Lambert said. "Flu is an illness that occurs every year. When it comes it causes a lot of disruption." That includes the time parents need to take off work to care for a sick child, and then the disruption caused when the parents contract the virus themselves. "The infection is a relatively costly illness compared to all the other coughs and colds children get," he said. The 12-month study looked at 234 children in Melbourne who were younger than five. Ten per cent of children in the study were struck down with the flu. Dr Lambert said 10 per cent across a population added up to a lot of people affected, particularly when the flow-on effects of others contracting the virus was considered. "They're really the driving force or the engine behind transmitting to other people. "Not only are there potential benefits in vaccinating children and protecting children themselves against it, but there are also benefits in stopping transmission to parents and grandparents." Dr Lambert said that while more research needed to be done, including on the effects of immunising children, there was mounting evidence flu was a big problem. Dr Lambert acknowledged there might be concern among parents about the fact that influenza vaccination was not a one-off vaccination, but needed to be administered before each flu season, which would also make such a program costly. Australian Vaccination Network spokeswoman Meryl Dorey said she could not imagine any cost-benefit equation that would make a flu vaccine of any use in Australia. Ms Dorey also questioned its effectiveness. "Children do not have high morbidity from flu," she said. "It [the vaccine] may not even touch the strain that's in the community." Page 2 of 4 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

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2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Local Kids are not immune - Vaccination rates fall to dangerously low level CLARE MASTERS, ZOE TAYLOR MATP 446 words 15 July 2006 Daily Telegraph DAITEL 1 - State 5 English Copyright 2006 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved ALMOST one in five school-aged children are not fully immunised against infectious diseases including measles. Only 83 per cent of six-year-olds have had the recommended vaccinations, according to NSW Health data. While the vaccination rates for infants are more than 90 per cent, there is a dangerous fall off by the time children start school. In some parts of NSW up to a third of youngsters have not been fully vaccinated and public health experts have warned that children are at risk of disease outbreaks. Medical experts say some parents are alarmed by scare tactics by anti-immunisation lobbyists who warn vaccination can provoke serious side effects or cause autism. Dr Peter McIntyre, director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance at Westmead, said those claims had been discredited. A 2003 study of NSW parents found a third of parents with children who had not had both the MMR jabs recommended at 12 months and four years had not known the second injection was required. However, 15 per cent of the parents said they either disagreed or had concerns about vaccination. A recent outbreak of measles in NSW concerned medical experts. Of 56 cases of measles reported from March to May this year, only one patient had received both the recommended shots of the multiple MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. "The recent outbreak showed that measles is like a heat-guided missile," Dr McIntyre said. "Don't kid yourself that your child is totally in the clear because everyone else is immunised." From next year immunised children will be issued with a certificate when they are turn five to prove they have had the recommended vaccinations. Dr McIntyre said he hoped the new system would allow schools to more easily identify children who had not been immunised and warn parents they may be excluded from school if there is a disease outbreak. Spokeswoman for The Australian Vaccination Network Meryl Dorey said parents are becoming increasingly concerned about the cocktail of injections on the vaccination schedule. She said enquires from concerned parents has doubled in the last two years to more than 20,000 each year. Northern suburbs GP and father of three Dr Mark Donohue stopped vaccinating his children after his eldest daughter became sick from her jabs more than 20 years ago. Dr Donohue believes recent vaccination for trivial childhood illness like chickenpox are a waste of public funds. "Some of these diseases you are better off getting on the younger side of puberty," he said. [DTM_T-20060715-1-005-976411 ] Document DAITEL0020060714e27f0001q Page 4 of 4 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.