We hear it all the time: “I don’t want a flu vaccine. It gives you the flu.” The old, the young, and even health professionals make this claim. And it’s usually followed by a personal example like, “the…
A new strain of whooping cough that appears to be resistant to vaccination could take Australia’s four-year epidemic into a dangerous new phase, researchers have warned. A team led by scientists at The…
Reports on people suffering an adverse reaction to immunisation focus on the suffering of one over the safety of many. But immunisation benefits the whole community so we should all bear responsibility…
The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) today won its Supreme Court appeal against the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), which had ordered the anti-vaccination network to warn that its website…
Whenever stories about vaccination hit the headlines, just how deeply we value vaccines becomes strikingly clear. Whether it’s the celebration of new vaccines, the outrage at disease outbreaks, or the…
Influenza is never off the news agenda for long. If it’s not the flu season (and it always is in one hemisphere) and the attendant calls for vaccinations, it’s news about vaccines causing problems or new…
Influenza is never off the news agenda for long. If it’s not the flu season (and it always is in one hemisphere) and the attendant calls for vaccinations, it’s news about vaccines causing problems or new…
Few medical myths have spread as feverishly and contributed to so much preventable illness than the theory that the triple measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine might be linked to autism. The tale…
Michele Bachmann’s unfounded statement about HPV vaccination and mental retardation couldn’t be further from the truth. But the damage her statements may cause is even more disturbing than what she says…
The lack of scientific literacy in the media causes much harm to public understanding of the role and importance of vaccines. The latest instance revives the same old fears using the same formula that…
Flu outbreaks in nursing homes can lead to pneumonia, stroke and heart attacks among elderly residents. Staff are a major potential source of infection, but only around one in five get an annual flu shot…
Emergency medicine specialist Chris Baggoley has been appointed Australia’s new Chief Medical Officer, after acting in the role since April. The Chief Medical Officer works out of the Department of Health…
The publication by Australian Doctor of a controversial public lecture given earlier this year by Sydney chiropractor, Nimrod Weiner, has created a flurry of criticism about the lecture, particularly regarding…
Ian Barr, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
Have you ever wondered why you need to get an influenza vaccination each year to protect yourself? Or even why it seems like another pandemic threat is announced before every flu season? Well, it’s all…
The number of people suffering from influenza in Australia this year has soared compared to recorded numbers from previous years, with nearly 8,000 cases so far compared to about 2,000 last year. We don’t…
Queensland authorities came under attack yesterday for being unprepared for a Hendra virus outbreak after it was found that they’d only stocked 15 doses of virus antibodies. But the case for stocking up…
The Lancet, one of most prestigious medical journals in the world recently published a series of five papers on “the new decade of vaccines”. These were followed by a sixth paper – A call to action for…
Twenty years after his discovery that peptic ulcers were caused by a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori, Nobel Prize winner Barry Marshall is using the same bacteria as the base of an edible vaccine that…
When someone is adversely affected by a vaccine in Australia, their only way to receive compensation is through the courts. But this is not the case worldwide. Vaccines undergo rigorous testing to ensure…
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