Reply: Immunisation
Re Letter to Editor Samantha MacKenzie
The choice to immunise a child or not is very clearly one for parents to make in New Zealand. Free immunisation against the serious childhood diseases, while highly recommended by health care professionals, is not mandatory.
There are hundreds of vaccines licensed internationally however not every one can be government funded so priorities are set every 2 years. There must be a very strong body of evidence supporting the need for and the conciderable benefits of any vaccine before it is approved for our National Childhood Immunisation Schedule.
There are of course many excellent vaccines (such as Hepatitis A vaccines) that do not meet the criteria of cost versus benefits and so are only available here for purchase.
The trend to "separate" vaccines does seem to be loosing favour for most parents who deeply investigate immunisation. This has happened increasingly since 2002 when the theories of Dr Andrew Wakefield, already widely discredited scientifically - were exposed by the British press. They revealed his conflict of interest in not declaring funding he was receiving at the time for a small group who wanted to sue the vaccine companies and his own patent application for a single measles vaccine.
The company that manufactured the single rubella vaccine stopped production of that in 2002 stating that the international market was no longer profitable. The Ministry of Health have advised they have a tender out for a supplier of a single rubella vaccine however no company has applied for that since 2002. Single rubella vaccine is not available in Australia either.
The single tetanus vaccine is an effective vaccine and is given sometimes as a booster for adults following a dirty wound. There is, however a much better vaccine to protect infants against tetanus - as a bonus it also protects against diphtheria, whooping cough and polio without any additional injections.
There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support the use of single tetanus or rubella vaccines over the funded vaccines.
More information on the full list of vaccines available in NZ can be found on www.immune.org.nz under vaccine availability or phone 0800 IMMUNE.
Natalie Desmond
Immunisation Advisory Centre
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