It’s no secret that child vaccinations is a hot topic, with both sides of the to-vax and not-to-vax camp feeling pretty strongly about their opinions.
But for two Queensland parents, the evidence is clear.
Posting three photos of their youngest child to Facebook on Thursday, Queensland couple Kayley Burke and Michael Halyday gave followers compelling evidence as to why vaccinations are just so important.
Burke with her son in hospital on Thursday. Source: Kayley Burke / Facebook.
"Vaccinate your kids people... The pictures below show you exactly why..." Burke wrote alongside the images of their young son.
"Our poor baby boy who is too young to be immunised has caught the chicken pox... It has almost been a week since they showed up... Today he was admitted to Ipswich Hospital with a secondary infection..." the mum-of-two continued.
In the heartbreaking images, the baby is seen with large patches of inflamed and irritated skin, many of which had scabbed over.
Burke with her son in hospital on Thursday. Source: Kayley Burke / Facebook.
"Kaliah [Burke and Halyday's daughter] and myself also have the chicken pox fortunately since Kaliah hasn't long been immunised she has a few spots and blisters but is well in herself... Adult chicken pox is so horrible and painful I would much rather give birth with no pain relief..." Burke continued before adding her final warning to other parents.
"Bottom line if you don't vaccinate your kids you're a bloody idiot... Think about the risk you are putting on other helpless kids that are too young or who actually can't be vaccinated!"
The post has since been shared over 7,000 times since being posted.
Burke, Halyday and their two children. Source: Kayley Burke / Facebook.
Burke's warning comes following a recent chickenpox outbreak at a Melbourne primary school that lead to a quarter of all students being absent.
Despite scientific evidence consistently showing that vaccinations are not linked to high-profile medical conditions such as autism, the number of parents opting to not vaccinate their children continues to grow.
Top Comments
My daughter caught whooping cough
A couple of years after being vaccinated for the disease. Vaccination isnt the holy grail or a guarantee you wont still catch the disease your child is vaccinated for. It is better to have your eyes open about this issue and be aware there are always risks to weigh on both sides, whether you vaccinate or not. As an educator whose worked in special education, i have seen what happens to that percentage of children who did have an adverse affect when they had a vaccination (medically documented as the reson), that have left then with servere mental disabilities. It wad sadly more common yhan i thought possible. Alternatively, go take a walk in any old cemetery and see how many little babies passed away due to childhood diseases in any one year, pre vaccination. My point is, there are risks on both sides.
Great comment.
they passed away for many reasons, not lack of vaccination.
Both my daughters had chicken pox (before vaccinations were available for it) at 5 years and 6 months. Neither one of my daughters looked like the child in this photo, in fact you can do a Google search on what chicken pox normally look like, red puffy sores all over their body. Chicken pox had gone around a lot in the school I saw what my friends children looked like, none of them looked like the above photo. I'm feeling like something isn't right with this story, does the baby have some kind of secondary infection? I did read that giving Ibuprofen to children with chicken pox and aggravate the condition. In any event, vaccination debate aside, I'm very suspicious about the legitimacy of this story as it relates to the photos.
I'm a nurse that works in an emergency room and can 100% confirm this is what can happen with children and chicken pox. If you got away with your children only having red puffy sores you are very lucky. As mentioned in the article the poor bubba has been admitted to hospital with a secondary infection which is a massive risk with chicken pox and children. In fact it can kill children by leading to conditions such as sepsis and encephalitis, it is really serious. And I think the ibuprofen thing is a myth, I have never heard of it and we give it to kids all the time. At the end of the day this is what can happen with chicken pox and I think it great the parents are pro vax and raising awareness of what can happen.
It actually isn't a myth, it's well documented in the literature and causes a skin infection that looks identifical to this (the mother's post stated sh'd given it to him). There was also a recent case in the UK where the parents went public to raise awareness of the risk so other parents don't make the same mistake.
It's rather alarming that a health professional isn't aware of this, you should never give ibuprofen or other NSAIDs like asprin to someone with chicken pox.