Immunisation: Should parents choose?
Wednesday 11 January 2012
Immunisation: Should parents choose?
Parents have been urged to immunise their children despite calls from groups such as the Australian Vaccination Network who say parents should have the right to choose.
Queensland's Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said Queensland Health remained "absolutely committed" to delivering its immunisation program to as many Queenslanders as possible.
"In the past year hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders have been protected against deadly diseases such as whooping cough, cervical cancer, diphtheria and measles, as well as influenza." she said.
"The benefits of vaccination are obvious. Between 1930 and 1988, around 40,000 Australians developed paralytic Polio. Now Australia is Polio free.
"This program saves lives, and we will continue to urge Queenslanders to vaccinate their children against life-threatening illnesses," Dr Young said.
"Queensland's vaccination program is extremely safe and is the most effective way to prevent illness and death from vaccine preventable diseases," she said.
State Member for Cook Jason O'Brien concurred and said groups like "the misleadingly named" Australian Vaccination Network " are wrong to discourage people from getting vaccinated."
"The fact is vaccinations have saved millions of lives. Their invention was a miracle of scientific achievement" he said.
According to the Australian Vaccination Network's website "We believe it is a parent's right to choose what's best for their child...some would say that this is one of the most basic rules of any civilised society. Yet governments all over the world have abridged or denied the right to free choice when it comes to vaccinations, vaccines and immunisations."
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