Urgent call for children to be vaccinated after baby dies in hospital
Health authorities are urging parents to vaccinate their children against influenza after one baby died and another 18 children were admitted to a Sydney hospital between early April and the beginning of July.
A two-year-old baby died last Sunday at the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Westmead after becoming infected with the influenza A strain.
Along with 13 other infected children admitted to the hospital, the toddler not been vaccinated.
On Friday, NSW Health re-released a statement reminding parents of its free flu vaccination initiative for children under five, urging parents not to leave it until it was too late.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said 19 children were admitted to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead between early April and July 8.
Seventeen of those children had contracted influenza A (H1N1).
“We know that 15 of the children were eligible for the free flu vaccine but only two of them had been fully vaccinated against flu,” Dr Chant said.
Dr Vicky Sheppeard, NSW Health’s Director of Communicable Diseases, said the 2018 flu season was gathering speed, although it is not expected to be as devastating as the 2017 flu season – the worst on record in Australia since the 2009 pandemic.
“2017 was the worst season in a long time, with over 100,000 confirmed cases of influenza in New South Wales alone,” Dr Sheppeard told Yahoo7.
“That season started early, in early June, and lasted at least eight weeks – that’s a long flu season. At this time last year we had over 6000 confirmed cases, whereas last week we only had 250 cases.
“At the moment things are pretty quiet, but we do expect in the next couple of weeks that the flu season will start picking up.”
Dr Sheppeard said last year’s outbreak was severe because the strain hit elderly people hard.
“This year there is a different strain circulating, called Influenza A (H1N1), which mostly strikes children and young adults,” she said.
Dr Sheppeard said 50 per cent more vaccines have been distributed than at the same time last year, indicating that more people are getting vaccinated. But she warned against complacency.
“It’s especially important that small children are vaccinated because the H1N1 strain hasn’t circulated for several years,” she said.
“They won’t have any immunity to this strain, which is why we are particularly keen for parents to take advantage of the free flu vaccination program.”
Pregnant women are eligible for free flu vaccination during pregnancy, which provides a newborn baby with the antibodies that will last them through their first six months of life.
“From that point, any child from six-months-old to five-years-old is eligible for a free vaccination,” Dr Sheppeard said.
“That group is most susceptible because they’re attending childcare, they’re in play groups or pre-school, they haven’t learned how to cover their mouths when they’re coughing or wipe their noses.
“They haven’t been exposed to particular strains simply because they haven’t lived long enough to have an immunity to the A strain. The only way you will get an immunity to this strain is to have a vaccine, or catch the infection and get sick.
“Obviously, we’d prefer the first option.”
Despite a recent push by ‘anti-vaxxers’, who claim the flu vaccine has harmful side effects for children, Dr Sheppeard said vaccination rates continued to rise.
“What we’ve seen over recent decades and even the past five years is that vaccines that are on the national schedule, ie free and available for all children, we’re having quarter-on-quarter improvement in our uptake,” Dr Sheppeard said.
“In New South Wales, we’re actually recording 94 per cent of children being fully vaccinated and Aboriginal children at 97 per cent.
“Anti-vaxxers have been active for a long time; we believe they comprise only one to two per cent of the population. We’re seeing improving vaccination rates all the time, so we think the number of anti-vaxxers is probably decreasing.”
Whilst understanding the concerns some parents may have about the side effects of the flu vaccine, Dr Sheppeard said the alternative to not getting vaccinated was invariably worse.
“We rely on evidence that’s reviewed by experts and thoroughly monitor and test vaccines. We’re confident that the vaccines that are available are safe and that they’re effective,” she said.
“We recognise that vaccines may have side effects, we understand that. But the side effects are very small in comparison to the disease itself, which, as we’ve seen recently, can end in hospitalisation and even death.”
