Education is not the only thing children can bring home from school

Thu, 25th January 2007

Parents are being reminded to ensure their children are fully vaccinated before they start school next week.

"Pre-schoolers are at particular risk because their four year old vaccinations are the ones that are most commonly forgotten," said Dr Sue Page, GP manager of the Northern Rivers Division of General Practice's immunisation project.

"These vaccines protect children from diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps and rubella. In some cases these diseases can lead to death and permanent disability."

The two pre-school boosters needed to complete each child’s immunisation program can help prevent the spread of these diseases, according to Dr Page.

"Four year olds are at an interesting time in their lives. They are about to start school for the first time where they will be mixing with a much larger group of people. This puts them at greater risk of coming into contact with these diseases."

The beginning of the school year serves as a timely reminder to check that these vaccinations are up-to-date and GPs or practice nurses can advise parents which immunisations their child needs.

"Vaccination plays an important role in protecting the health of individuals and the entire community," Dr Page said.

"Completing the childhood immunisation program will ensure all children in the Northern Rivers are protected, including those who are unable to be immunised or whose parents have chosen not to immunise their children."

Dr Page said the measles, a highly contagious disease that kills one child in 3,000, was an excellent example of how vaccination protected children and the wider community.

"Ten years ago local immunisation levels were between 50 and 60%. Today they are up around 90% and we no longer see major measles endemics."

"Early last year a group from overseas brought measles to Australia with them. The result of their visit was an increase in the number of measles cases in people who had not been vaccinated or who had been incompletely vaccinated. However, it did not spread to the wider community because of the high vaccination rate."

"What this shows is that children’s lives are being saved because of immunisation."

Date issued: 25/01/07

Media Contact: Katherine Breen Kurucsev, NRDGP, 6622 4453. Mobile 0438 026 165.

Measles facts

In measles epidemics in NSW in 1981 and 1984 there were 200,000 cases with 2,850 recorded hospital admissions. In the NSW epidemic of 1993-94, there were 271 cases of measles in the Northern Rivers with at least 15 children hospitalised.

Following Australia’s mass vaccination campaign for children in 1998, cases in the Northern Rivers fell to six. The few cases since recorded in this area have mostly been in unvaccinated children or adults who have only received one dose of MMR instead of two.Measles is so contagious that before the measles vaccine was widely used, 90% of unvaccinated children would catch it before they reached 20 years of age. Of all these sick children:

• One in 25 developed pneumonia, often with permanent lung scarring;
• One in 2,000 developed encephalitis (brain inflammation);
• For every 10 with encephalitis, one died and up to four had permanent brain damage;
• One in 25,000 developed SSPE (progressive brain degeneration), which is always fatal;
• The overall death rate is one in 3,000 cases.

Reference: National Health and Medical Research Council, The Australian Immunisation handbook 7th edition, March 2000.
See also Dr Page's article Why Vaccinate?

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