“You cannot send children aged under seven to Manus Island because of the issues of inoculation - you can’t do it.” - Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison, press conference, 21 July. Scott Morrison…
Heidi Larson, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Recent rubella outbreaks in Japan and Poland are the clearest evidence possible that herd immunity matters. There are many reasons why people don’t get vaccinated for totally preventable diseases such…
Changes to the National Immunisation Program schedule coming into effect today (July 1, 2013) will see two fewer injections given to young children. The changes represent a more efficient way of delivering…
Dave Hawkes, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has attracted attention in the past week for two contradictory reasons: the Japanese government has withdrawn its recommendation for the shot, while public health…
Actor Michael Douglas’ claim that his throat cancer was caused by human papillomavirus - or HPV - has generated lots of publicity. But head and neck cancers are still thankfully still very rare. They are…
Are you worried about how decisions involving public money are made? You should be. Last week, the National Audit Office disclosed that the Department of Health spent £424 million on the anti-flu drug…
The akedah narrative – the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac at God’s command – is one that has long inspired and haunted Jews, Christians and Muslims. In being prepared to kill…
Chinese researchers have developed the world’s first ever vaccine against a strain of enterovirus that can cause hand, foot and mouth disease, a condition commonly affecting small children that can lead…
In recent years there’s been growing debate around the safety of vaccinations – but how much of this is based on untruths? In the latest collaboration between SBS and The Conversation, Dr Rachael Dunlop…
The number of young children contracting the most common strains of potentially fatal pneumococcal disease has plummeted 97% since the universal vaccination against this bacterial disease began in 2005…
In April 1939, measles was coursing through the industrial suburbs of North Melbourne, Carlton and Fitzroy, but the city medical officer assured the public it was not severe. He noted there had been just…
A recent News Limited campaign to enable childcare centres in NSW to refuse entry to unvaccinated children is gaining momentum, with the legislation expected to be introduced to NSW parliament this week…
When people say they have “the flu”, what they’re experiencing most of the time is the common cold, which is not caused by the influenza virus at all. But the term “flu season”, which Australia is in the…
Recently released government figures show levels of childhood vaccination have fallen to dangerously low levels in some areas of Australia, resulting in some corners of the media claiming re-ignition of…
New diseases grab headlines. The latest influenza scare – H7N9 – has prompted much speculation about the direction the virus might take. And rightly so, as vaccines to fight new viruses can take some time…
Flu vaccines given to children should be more rigorously tested before before being allowed onto the market, researchers say, to prevent a repeat of the 2010 vaccine release, which caused a spate of high…
Approximately 140 vaccines are registered for use in livestock and companion animals in Australia. Many more animals are vaccinated each year than humans. Vaccines are used in farm animals: to protect…
The murder of nine female health workers involved in child immunisation on February 8 in Kano (the largest city in northern Nigeria) is a chilling reminder that saving children’s lives is not a goal shared…
Researchers have created a pain-free DNA vaccine skin patch that tests on monkeys show is over 100 times more effective than a normal needle at kicking off the first step in getting a DNA vaccine to work…
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand