Great article in the Sunshine Coast Daily - and poll still running so please vote!

[Guest guest]

Here are the contact details once again for the Sunshine Coast Daily -

please write/call/SMS to thank them for the first balanced piece on

this issue so far! The poll is on the same page as the article. The

results so far:

Are your children immunised?

http://tinyurl.com/c9etke

Poll Finishes 12:00a.m. 16th March 2009

Yes, it's the only sensible thing to do 71%

No, there are dangers with immunisation 21%

Yes they are but I regret it 6%

Measles mum says it's only natural

12:00a.m. 7th March 2009

| By Janine Hill

Measles mum says it's only natural

The mother of two Beerwah school children diagnosed with measles has

queried Queensland Health’s “panic mode” reaction to the outbreak of

the illness.

The number of confirmed cases of measles climbed to 13 yesterday as

Queensland Health factored in three cases which occurred in early

February but had only just been reported, according to a departmental

spokesperson.

Twelve of the confirmed cases are Beerwah High students and the other

a Beerwah primary student. Six cases, including two at the high

school, remain under investigation, and a Caloundra student tested for

measles has been cleared.

The Beerwah mother, who asked not to be named to protect the

identities of her children, said her son and daughter, aged seven and

17, became sick in the first week of the school year.

Her daughter was initially told by a doctor that she had a 24 hour

virus and initial tests on her son at Caloundra Hospital showed that

he did not have measles but a second round of tests on both children

confirmed they had the illness.

She kept both children home from school prior to their diagnosis

because they were simply too sick to go, although the teenage girl did

venture to school one day to collect a jumper.

The mother, who has doubts about the diagnosis because of the

inconsistent test results and varying symptoms, said none of the other

six people in her household, including another child, had become ill,

leaving her sceptical about the contagiousness of the illness

And she could not understand why the primary school had not been put

through the same rigorous vaccination scanning program as the high

school if the illness was as contagious as health authorities have

claimed.

“It looks like it’s been panic mode to me,” she said.

“I think they’ve gone into a bit of a mania about it.”

Queensland Health defended its decision not to apply the same

screening process to Beerwah primary, saying that the child had not

attended school while infectious.

The mother is also angry that another of her children was vaccinated

without her permission during the scanning program at the high school.

“To me, that’s illegal. I’ll be asking some questions about it,” she

said.

The woman, who is studying naturopathy and homeopathy, said she had

“no regrets whatsoever” about her decision to cease vaccinating her

children after her daughter suffered an adverse reaction to a triple

antigen vaccination at 12 months which left her with a permanent

disability.

She said both children had been homoeopathically immunised.

She said the children had experienced different symptoms. Both had

temperatures in the vicinity of 40 degrees but her son experienced

vomiting, coughing, a runny noise and a heat like rash almost

immediately, while her daughter felt ill for some days, without

vomiting or a runny nose, prior to the appearance of what appeared to

be a heat rash.

She treated their illness with vitamins C, A and Echinacea and they

have since returned to school.

She is yet unsure how her children contracted the illness.

A Queensland Health spokesperson said one of the cases had been

infected while overseas some time ago, but the mother said her family

had neither travelled nor been in contact with anyone who had recently

been overseas.