Name: Craig Nelson, Family First candidate Students fight vaccine rule High cost of kids with flu

is avoidable, study shows Health fear at drop in jabs for children Kids are not immune - Vaccination rates fall to dangerously low level

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News Name: Craig Nelson, Family First candidate 214 words 14 November 2006 Mornington Peninsular Leader MORNPL 114 English Copyright 2006 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved Name: Craig Nelson, Family First candidate Age: 30 Occupation: Chiropractor Reside: Mornington Community involvement: Sponsor of Baxter Soccer Club, member of: Chiropractors Association of Australia, Australian Spinal Research Foundation and Australian Vaccination Network, supporter of the Epenarra Aboriginal Community in NT through financial support via World Vision. Why should the electorate vote for you? As a health care professional in Mornington, consulting with hundreds of families for the past seven years, I witness daily the personal impact that many real issues have on our local families. I keep seeing problems like substance abuse, youth suicide, unplanned teenage pregnancies, as well as preventable traumas and fatalities from motor vehicle accidents, hit our local families hard. Whether it's environmental issues or the high cost of child care, petrol prices, stamp duty, health services or education, Family First knows that ultimately it's families that feel the pain most. As a 30-year-old father of two, I love Family First. Family First looks at policy making from the point of view of what's best for families. It's a simple, powerful and refreshing approach to politics. After all, what's good for your family is good for your community and Victoria. [MLV_T-20061114-1-014-742607 ] Document MORNPL0020061113e2be0000u

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Local Students fight vaccine rule CLARE MASTERS MATP 370 words 31 July 2006 Daily Telegraph DAITEL 1 - State 13 English Copyright 2006 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved MEDICAL students across NSW are considering taking the State Government to court over a policy enforcing vaccination. Newcastle University nursing student Brigitta Harvey is leading the battle, saying no Australian should be forced into a medical procedure against their will. About 25 students have contacted the Australian Vaccination Network after being told they can't finish their courses unless they are immunised. "I'm the youngest of four and, after my older sister got quite sick after being vaccinated, Mum decided not to vaccinate me," Ms Harvey, 20, said. "I've since researched it and I think the risks far outweigh the benefits because it is a massive strain on my immune system." Ms Harvey and others hope to convince the Government to let them continue their education -- but if they can't they will take the matter to court. "When I first started [studying] I thought they wouldn't discriminate against me," Ms Harvey said. A barrister advising the students told The Daily Telegraph they have a case, saying: "They may have had action for unlawful discrimination under the disability discrimination act." A NSW Health spokeswoman confirmed students must be vaccinated against specific infectious diseases. "In the past three years in NSW there have been more than 25 reported cases in which an infected health care worker has passed on a disease to a patient," she said. The policy has been in place since 2001 but it is understood the health department will send out new directives next month. Getting to the bottom of immunisation issue A GP is challenging the way Australia immunises children by claiming a needle in the bottom is better than one in the thigh. Newcastle University academic Dr Ian Cook yesterday told a medical conference he believed the Federal Government should overhaul its recommendations for administering vaccines. Current guidelines urge doctors to vaccinate children under one-year-old in the thigh with a long, thick needle. But Dr Cook believes injections given in the first year are less painful and more effective when given in the buttock. "It's a vastly superior area," he added. "There's less reaction." [DTM_T-20060731-1-013-405619 ] Photo Document DAITEL0020060730e27v00012 Page 3 of 8 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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 costbenefit 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 5 of 8 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

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GENERAL Health fear at drop in jabs for children CATHY O'LEARY 415 words 19 July 2006 The West Australian TWAU METRO 5 English (c) 2006, West Australian Newspapers Limited WA health officials are worried that parents are becoming complacent about vaccinating their children against a host of dangerous diseases, with figures showing one in five six-year-olds is not fully immunised. Although 90 per cent of one to two-year-olds in WA are up to date with their recommended vaccinations, there is a big fall after that, leaving only 79 per cent of school-aged children protected by boosters. Most States have vaccination rates of 80-85 per cent for six-year-olds. WA Health Department communicable disease control specialist Tania Wallace said the drop-off was a concern and could help explain the recent measles outbreak in Australia, which started in WA. "This is certainly a very big issue for us, and the big measles outbreak has really made people realise that some adults and children haven't had their booster shots," she said. "The problem with the boosters around school age is that parents don't seem to get around to it. It's just not on the radar like it is when you have a newborn baby, you're visiting the health system a lot." Dr Wallace said the other problem was the big time lag between the period when babies had their primary schedule of vaccinations and then had their boosters at the age of four. Many parents did not realise the boosters were meant to be given at four years, well before they were at school. "The only way we're going to get on top of this is to have more reminders to parents around their child's entry to day care and then to school," she said. Dr Wallace did not attribute the drop-off in rates to parents worried about the safety of the vaccines because she said if this was the case officials would be seeing lower rates for babies. Only 2 to 3 per cent of parents were conscientious objectors to vaccines. But Australian Vaccination Network president Meryl Dor~ey, a critic of the immunisation program, said she believed 15 per cent of parents disagreed or had concerns about the side-effects of vaccines. "What we see happening with families whose children have reactions is that the first child is highly vaccinated but subsequent children are less so," she said. "In other cases parents start out vaccinating their baby and then get more information about the side-effects and stop." Document TWAU000020060719e27j0004p

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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 8 of 8 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.