Perth Flu Vaccination Sold Out - Parents want to know both sides!

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Subject: Perth Flu Vaccination Sold Out - Parents want to know both sides!

Perth Influenza vaccination seminar completely sold out

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Australian Vaccination Network's (AVN's) influenza vaccination seminar, scheduled for Tuesday, June the 1st at the State Library in Perth, is completely sold out. "Parents are still contacting us wanting to attend but we've had to tell them that there simply are no more seats available." says AVN Media Spokesperson, Meryl Dorey. "We are hoping to schedule another event in Perth for July of this year so we ask people to just be patient and to check out the information on the AVN's website, www.avn.org.au, in the meantime."Seven seats have been reserved at the library for representatives of the WA Department of Health and also for Prof Fiona Stanley from the Telethon Institute - the bodies involved with running and approving the recent influenza vaccination campaign. It is hoped this issue will be treated with the seriousness it deserves and that those in the Government of WA and the Telethon Institute will attend to hear what parents and health professionals' concerns are regarding this vaccine and the way in which the campaign was managed.The AVN is Australia's national vaccination and health safety watchdog, providing a balance of information to be used in conjunction with that distributed by doctors and the government. The AVN asks whether the parents of Western Australia whose children were vaccinated against seasonal flu - with such devastating effect - were aware that their children were part of a study funded by the vaccine manufacturers CSL Pty Ltd and Sanofi Pasteur? (1a,1b)This study, run via the Telethon Institute and initiated in 2008 at a cost of $1.2 million, was put together to pre-emptively determine if flu vaccines were effective in children."One has to wonder about the ethics involved when children are offered a new vaccine which has never been used in this age group before as part of a study funded by the vaccine's manufacturers and parents aren't even told. Especially when the State Government has pushed so hard to get parents to agree to this vaccine - even sending personal letters out to families with children in this age range using information from the Medicare database." Meryl Dorey continued.Unanswered questions:We would like to repeat the as-yet unanswered questions put to the West Australia's Health Minister's office last month. As of yet, we have received no reply.1- Is the AH1N1 portion of these vaccines recycled from the unused doses of last year's swine flu shots.? If so, considering that those shots are now at or past their use-by date, could this be the cause of the current problem? 2- Is this vaccine being administered from multi-dose or single dose vials? If we are using multi-dose vials, why was that decision made since the risk of cross-infection and also the risk from the mercury-based preservative, thiomersal, are unnecessary in a non-emergency situation? 5- Can the government release the Lot and Batch numbers of the vaccines associated with this cluster of reactions so that others can be made aware that it might be a hot lot? 6- Has there been a higher-than normal rate of reactions reported in adults and adolescents who are receiving seasonal flu vaccines this year? 7- Did the children who reacted to these shots over the last couple of days receive any other vaccines at the same time as their seasonal flu shots? 8- Is the West Australian government aware of the published results of a recent 40-year retrospective study conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration into the effectiveness of influenza vaccines in children? The results are displayed in the following graphs:Dr Jefferson who is a worldwide expert on influenza vaccines and who worked on this retrospective study, reported in the British Medical Journal that, "In children under 2 years inactivated vaccines had the same field efficacy as placebo,8 and in healthy people under 65 vaccination did not affect hospital stay, time off work, or death from influenza and its complications." (2)"While there may be hundreds and even thousands of children and adults who have already reacted to this year's seasonal flu vaccine (The Perth Now (3) forum has had almost 300 comments posted regarding this issue - the majority of those from people whose children have had reactions), it is essential that the government immediately put together a task-force to investigate how the decision was made to use this vaccine, what independent research was available to show that it was either safe or effective and what role - if any - the vaccine manufacturers played in introducing this vaccine to the childhood schedule." Ms Dorey stated.1. a) Government of Western Australia, Department of Health, Media Release 15th February 2008,Free vaccines to help fight child influenza. Government of Western Australia, Director of the Department of Health, 2008, Dr. Van Buynder.(2) BMJ 2006;333:912-915 (28 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.38995.531701.80(3) http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/was-free-influenza-vaccination-program-has-been-suspended-for-children-under-five/story-e6frg12c-1225857140885

About Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.

The AVN is a non-profit, volunteer-run charitable association. Since 1994, the AVN has provided information and support to the general community who are trying to make informed choices about vaccination and health. Their lobbying in Federal Parliament has ensured that compulsory vaccination for children has not come to pass and they are the major reporters of vaccine adverse reactions to ADRAC (The Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee).

For more information visit www.avn.org.au

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