It’s news that’s both devastating and infuriating.
NSW Health has revealed a baby that died last month from whooping cough had not been vaccinated against the preventable disease.
The child passed away in the Hunter New England health district last month
NSW Health’s communicable disease director Vicky Sheppeard said “we understand they (the child) had not received any doses of the vaccine,” The Daily Telegraph reports.
“It is tragic and we feel dreadful for the family to experience this,” she said.
In the past five years, Dr Sheppeard says, three babies have died from whooping cough — and all were unvaccinated.
More than 1500 infants in NSW have been diagnosed this year with whooping cough, which starts like a cold with a blocked or runny nose, a fever, coughing and sneezing. The serious respiratory infection can be life-threatening, and can also lead to pneumonia and brain damage, NSW Health reports.
Health experts say children who don’t receive a first vaccination at six weeks old — and follow-on injections at four and six months — are most at risk, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Immunisation rates among babies in NSW aged 1-2 remain lower than the national average, largely because of the efforts of vocal anti-vaxx groups like the Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network, which peddles lies and promotes dangerously misinformed hysteria about immunisation.
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Top Comments
There is some massive miss understanding of how the whooping couch vaccine works on here.
Firstly, you DO NOT receive infered immunity from Whooping Couch vaccine UNTILL the third round of vaccination at 6 months. FACT. If in doubt ask your doctor, and if you have a strain of logic in your head, ask yourself why it is you need three jabs in the space of four months. So you children are NOT protected against whooping couch until over six months of age. Also if your child gets whooping couch before 6 months of age he is entered into the "not fully vaccinated" statistics.
Secondly, the whooping couch vaccine currently in use is not as effective as it should be. Australian government health statistics show that 85% of all children under the age of 5 years of age who contract whooping couch are FULLY vaccinated. These stats also mirror those from other countries.
Thirdly, even if your vaccinated against whooping couch, you still carry it and can pass it on to others.
Australia has a full vaccination rate of around 94%, well above that required for herd immunity.
The reality is that if your vaccinated child contracts whooping couch, the greatest possibility is that he caught it from another vaccinated child or person.
The parents should be charged with child endangerment