Jabs save lives so take them, says expert

Two major studies show the benefits of vaccination outweigh any risk.

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SOUTH Australia's chief medical officer wants an end to the vaccination debate, urging everyone to "do the right thing" to protect themselves and save lives.

His call follows the release of two major studies - one from the University of Adelaide - which show the benefits of vaccination outweigh any risk.

SA Health chief medical officer Paddy Phillips urged parents to ensure their children were immunised against diseases and that all South Australians get a flu jab.

"I think absolutely the debate should be over, people should do the right thing and get their children, themselves and their families vaccinated," Prof Phillips said.

"Vaccinations are one of the greatest public health initiatives that has improved the health of humans over the last hundred years.

"They're probably the most important public health initiative since sewage and running water in terms of preventing death and illness.

"There is no doubt that vaccination, to protect ourselves and the community, is the right thing to do."

A University of Adelaide study - published in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal yesterday - found the number of children hospitalised with chicken pox or shingles had dropped 68 per cent since the introduction of the vaccine in 2006.

A second study, which was published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, highlighted the benefits of a US vaccination program during the 2009 outbreak of H1N1, or swine flu.

Prof Phillips said vaccines became publicly available only once stringent quality and safety testing processes had been followed.

"That means that it not only has to be effective and be valuable but it has to show absolutely, without any question of a doubt, that it's cost-effective," he said.

He said smallpox - a highly contagious and deadly disease - had been eradicated around the world and now existed only in laboratories.

Other diseases such as polio, which caused disability and death, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, German measles and whooping cough have also been substantially reduced.

In SA, he said 90 per cent of all four-year-olds had received the recommended vaccinations, a figure he would like to see higher.

The lead author of the chicken pox study, University of Adelaide Associate Professor Helen Marshall, said the chicken pox vaccine had prevented thousands of children from hospitalisation and death.

"It's really important to look at diseases once a vaccine has been introduced to see what actually happens," Professor Marshall said.

The study used data from four major Australian children's hospitals, including the Women's and Children's Hospital in North Adelaide, over two three-year periods before and after the vaccine became widely available in 2006.

From 1999-2001, there were 710 children hospitalised at the four sites. The figure fell to 227 between 2007-10 once the vaccine was available.

Complications of chicken pox can include pneumonia, seizures and meningitis, and unborn babies of pregnant women who get chicken pox can suffer severe abnormalities including limb deformities.

The swine flu study found the H1N1 vaccination was associated with a small excess risk - about 1.6 extra cases per one million people vaccinated - of acquiring Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system that can result in paralysis and sometimes death.

The authors said the the vaccine had prevented an estimated 700,000-1.5 million influenza cases in the US.

"In view of the morbidity and mortality caused by 2009 H1N1 influenza and the effectiveness of the vaccine, clinicians, policy makers and those eligible for vaccination should be assured that the benefits of inactivated pandemic vaccines greatly outweigh the risks," the study says.

Prof Phillips said the Australian Vaccination Network Inc, a group that advocates debate about vaccination, was spreading misinformation and lies. "They don't put a balanced argument and I honestly don't understand why they do this."

Fair Trading NSW has ordered the AVN to change its name by March 21, on the grounds it does not convey the group's anti-vaccination stance and could mislead.

The network yesterday lodged a review against that decision.

The network's president, Greg Beattie, said the debate must remain open because questions about vaccine safety still existed.

"It's a legitimate debate that has to happen," he said.

"The AVN does not advocate in any form about whether people should vaccinate.

"The position that our organisation takes is it should remain open for debate."

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