Vaccinations are vital.

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In the US there is increasing concern about the prevalence and spread of West Nile Virus.This is a very nasty infection spread by Mosquitoes and which has no known treatment and currently, no obvious cure - although there are vaccines for similar mosquito-spread viruses which does give a modicum of hope for an eventual breakthrough. So far there have been 700 cases of West Nile Virus reported this year with many sufferers contracting meningitis or encephalitis. Since it first appeared in the US back in 1999, 3 million people have been infected and much research is currently being carried out into the mechanisms of the disease and ways of developing an effective vaccine.

Down in Western Australia we are battling with a much older foe - Whooping Cough - which this year has affected over 4,000 people, mainly children. This is a disaster on any public health level! Whooping cough is a contagious disease that should have been eradicated decades ago if parents had listened to professional advice and had their infants correctly immunized. Now, thanks to misinformation, there is a large group of non-immunized children in the community that has provided fertile ground for the spread of this potentially deadly disease.

Whooping cough is not just a bad cough that sounds like a "Whoop": it is an awful illness where the sufferer coughs, vomits, goes blue and is exhausted for sometimes up to 6 months! For most of my professional career it was a rarity to come across an isolated case, but over 4,000 officially confirmed cases in less than 12 months has returned it to centre stage. Yes, there is a significant group of older people who can suffer from a less severe form of Whooping Cough as their childhood immunity has waned over the decades, but the only reason their immunity has waned is because they failed to keep up to date with their immunizations!

It is imperative that all parents vaccinate their children against the infectious diseases of childhood that are known to put their lives at serious risk, and if you have any doubts then seek professional advice from those who know about how serious these infectious diseases are. It is just as important that all adults maintain a good level of immunity to community acquired infectious diseases too because when you protect yourself, you break a link in the progression of the disease to another. Again, if you have any concerns, ask someone who knows about infectious diseases and not someone who heard something about a neighbour who read a magazine article .......

In the US much effort is now going into finding an effective vaccination against West Nile Virus - a relatively new disease for that country. Lets hope that when it does arrive, it is rapidly and effectively used in the communities where it is most needed.

Vaccinations save lives: and when you get vaccinated, it's not just your life you're saving, you're protecting your neighbour too.

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Whooping cough

Tweet I suspect that everyone of you who reads this article will never seen, or experienced whooping cough, which is why many parents in the western world are taking it less seriously than they should. This fact was brought home to me by an article in the morning paper which gave the following description of the illness as: "Whooping cough, also known as Pertussis, is an acute respiratory infection that is transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets when an infected person talks, sneezes or coughs." Which when I read that, sounded like getting a mild cold. It did go on to state that "in young babies, infection can lead to severe health problems including pneumonia seizures and in some cases permanent disabilities or death", which did appear to give it an "edgier" feel.

But whooping cough is far nastier than these words make it appear.

Whooping cough still kills around 300,000 infants around the world each year and is one of the leading avoidable causes of death in children. The vast majority of those deaths occur in populations with poor, or non existent vaccination programs.

I have cared for patients with whooping cough, and it's a terribly debilitating disease. One family of five suffered miserably with pertussis for SIX months! They didn't have the energy to go upstairs to their bedrooms, so neighbours had dragged the mattresses downstairs for them to lie on. They were exhausted from the intractable coughing and feeling unwell: antibiotics were of no use to them, and all they could do was wait for full recovery, which eventually happened.

Because of the unfounded scare regarding the whooping cough vaccine, many people were confused and stopped vaccinating their children: children are at far greater risk of harm being driven to the supermarket in their parents car! Having our precious children protected against these "Childhood", yet killer diseases is something we should all do. If you do have genuine concerns, then talk to an expert, and, as my Mum always told me,  don't always believe everything you read in the newspaper!