Threat of whooping cough and measles looms over NZ

It is never a pleasant moment, but it is one that could save a four-year-old's life.
 
Mya is in for her immunisation injections, but not enough children like her are getting them.

As a result they are missing out on protection against diseases that can be killers - measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, polio and whooping cough.

It is whooping cough that could be the biggest threat.
 
“We are probably due for another epidemic,” says Helen Petousis of Auckland University. “At the moment our coverage rate with our vaccinations is too low and we have large amounts circulating in the community - mainly teenagers and adults - and it’s the teenagers and adults that can pass the disease on to young babies."

However, it is not just whooping cough.

In Dunedin, the Chief Medical Officer of Health has gone on record this week warning that while swine flu was creating a lot of excitement, an outbreak of measles was, "actually much, much more dangerous."

The target is to have 95 percent of children vaccinated. But New Zealand's rate is 77 percent - well below most other developed countries, including Australia and the United States.

Opponents of immunisation argue the public money involved can be better spent elsewhere.
 
“For example in 2005 only 13 children died from infectious diseases. There were 90 children who died from car accidents. there were 30 children who died from cancer,” states Sue Claridge of the Immunisation Awareness Society. “If we're spending our public health dollar, where can we best spend it to improve the health of our children and prevent mortality."

But that view is not shared by health authorities who say many of today's parents have never seen the harm that past generations have experienced from diseases that can now be prevented.