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We are currently being told that low compliance with vaccination recommendations is the cause of the resurgence of pertussis which Australia is experiencing. In other words, it is the unvaccinated in the community who are responsible for this outbreak. Let's look at the history of pertussis to get a better idea of exactly where the truth lies.

Using data from the Australian Yearbook, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Health we can examine the annual death rate from whooping cough. Prior to the time when the vaccine was introduced and then scheduled, deaths from pertussis were already in a steep decline. The introduction of the vaccine had no obvious effect on these death figures. This evidence is repeated in every country where vaccinations have been used for the past 100 years. In fact, in the US, vaccination was mandated for school entry in 1978 and since 1979, there has been a steady increase in the incidence of pertussis. This picture is duplicated in Australia and every other developed country where we see the majority of pertussis cases are occurring in fully vaccinated individuals.

A long history of side-effects Since its early days in the 1920s, the pertussis vaccine has been associated with a broad range of adverse events. Currently, we in Australia use both the newer acellular pertussis vaccine (DPaT) as well as the older, more crudely-produced whole-cell shot (DPT). Whole cell vaccines are just that. The entire B. pertussis bacteria, cultured in a combination of animal tissue, blood, and other unknown elements. We don?t know the exact composition because pharmaceutical companies are able to leave this information off of their package inserts due to it being proprietary?.

In addition to the biological components, the DPT vaccine contains aluminium hydroxide, formaldehyde (a carcinogen) and thiomersal (the mercury-based preservative credited with contributing to the current huge upsurge in autism and other behavioural disorders). The end result of this process is a vaccine jam-packed with bacterial and viral contaminants from the culture medium, heavy metals (both aluminium and mercury known neurotoxins or brain cell poisons) pertussis endotoxin and B. pertussis bacteria. We are one of the last developed nations in the world to still use the DPT vaccine. Left-over stocks from other countries were sold at bargain basement prices or given free in exchange for trade benefits to developing nations. Incredibly DPT, which until the advent of vaccines for cervical cancer was considered to be the most dangerous of all shots, is still being administered to Australian children if they react adversely to the DPaT. When informed of this, Barbara Loe Fisher, head of the National Vaccine Information Centre in the US, stated that this was evidence of gross negligence on the part of the Australian government who was failing in their duty of care to our children. The list of known side effects to DPT is quite long and includes such conditions as meningitis, encephalitis, permanent brain damage, seizures and epilepsy, asthma, eczema, food allergies, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

In the early part of this century, the Australian government, giving in to public pressure for safer vaccines and due to the fact that other developed nations had stopped using the DPT years earlier, introduced the newer acellular shot. Acellular basically means that rather than including the entire bacteria in the shot, it only contains part of the protein envelope which normally wraps the cell. It still contains a high proportion of endotoxin and many of the other toxic ingredients you will find in its older cousin. At the time of its introduction into Australia, it was claimed that though the DPT was perfectly safe, the DPaT was safer. However, when you read the list of side effects which the manufacturer itself reports to Infanrix, you find that it is exactly the same as the list from the whole cell shot.2

seizure

anaphylactic reaction

ITP thrombocytopenia

encephalopathy

fever >104 F

crying, persistent unusual

lymphadenopathy

cyanosis

intussusception

brachial neuritis

Guillain-Barre syndrome

??hypersensitivity reaction, Arthus-type

hypotonic-hyporesponsive episode

demyelinating Central Nervous System disease

mononeuropathy, cranial

mononeuropathy, peripheral

In addition, since both the whole cell and acellular vaccines contain such a large quantity of pertussis endotoxin, and since it is the endotoxin rather than the bacteria which cause the symptoms of whooping cough, there is a school of thought which says that children who develop whooping cough after vaccination have actually fallen ill due to the toxin. In other words, they have developed the symptoms of infection from the vaccine itself even if they were never actually exposed to the bacteria. On October 26, 2008, a statement was made by Dr Mitchell Smith warning about an outbreak of whooping cough in the State. He said that, We think that also we?re seeing a reflection of low immunisation rates in parts of NSW, particularly in the North Coast and parts of Western Sydney. This warning was reported by ABC News3 with absolutely no attempt to confirm the truth of the matter. It covers the vaccination rate in Australia. Please look at the figures for NSW during the period Dr Smith was referring to. In fact, information from the Communicable Diseases Bulletin, published by the Commonwealth Department of Health in regard to vaccination rates in Australia says otherwise. The vaccination rate for NSW was 94.9% with a total vaccination rate for all of Australia of over 95% - the magic number which, we are told, should see this disease wiped out for good. Again, if we look at historical data, we will see that our rates of vaccination against whooping cough are incredibly high now as compared with the figures being shown by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1991. We went from only 318 cases in Australia in 1991 (with only 71% pertussis vaccination coverage) to a high of 14,522 cases in 2009 when our vaccination rate was in excess of 95%. For 2009, we look to be on track to beat last year's record.

What has the whooping cough vaccine done to reduce the incidence of pertussis? From all of the available evidence, it has done no good at all and may actually have increased our rate or infection rather than reducing it.

Continued page three...

Meryl Dorey
Meryl Dorey is President of the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) and Editor of Living Wisdom magazine and a writer for NaturalParenting.com.au

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