Blue Mountains anti-vaxxers’ ‘blind trust’ in complementary medicine
Anti-vaxxing continues to be rife in two lifestyle communities of the Blue Mountains and researchers are blaming blind trust in complementary medicine practitioners.
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ANTI-VAXXING attitudes continue to prevail in two alternative lifestyle communities of the Blue Mountains and researchers are blaming blind trust in complementary medicine practitioners.
“Conscientious objector data” from the now discontinued Australian Childhood Immunisation Register has persistently shown high representations of vaccine hesitancy in the upper Blue Mountains, with peaks in Blackheath and Katoomba.
The worry is there are still “many” upper Blue Mountains parents who haven’t vaccinated their children due to concerns about safety and effectiveness, University of Technology academic Dr Jane Frawley said.
The co-author of Increasing immunisation in resistant areas: a case study from the Blue Mountains has been working with Wentworth Healthcare to sway attitudes.
Early research has found parents in the upper Blue Mountains are “trusting” complementary medicine practitioners to give them vaccination information because they doubt whether GPs are a “good source”.
But due to a lack of training, “many” of the complementary medicine practitioners are advising these same parents to speak to their GP — or do their own research.
Dr Frawley is now looking at whether decision aids can help put parents’ minds at ease.
“Decision aids answer parents’ questions, discuss risk of vaccinating and not vaccinating side-by-side and take into consideration ‘other’ aspects that are important to parents, such as personal values,” Dr Frawley, a National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellow, explained.
“Parents in this alternative lifestyle community are really clear that they don’t want vague and sweeping motherhood statements,” Dr Frawley said.
“They want detailed, transparent information that addresses their concerns.”
Dr Frawley acknowledged immunisation rates in the upper mountains have “steadily risen” since 2016 — “probably mostly” due to NSW Government’s No Jab No Pay and No Jab No Play campaigns — but many parents who have vaccinated their kids are still “really worried” about side-effects.
The bigger health district picture
In 2018, more than 96 per cent of children aged five years of age were up-to-date with their vaccinations in the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District (NBMLHD) — up from 83 per cent in 2009 — the health district’s spokesman said.
When pressed he did not comment on the Nepean Blue Mountains Needs Assessment 2018 report which showed Blue Mountains local government area had “consistently underperformed” in childhood immunisation rates across all age groups, compared to other LGAs in the district.
Nor did he speak to immunisation rates for Blackheath or Katoomba specifically.
‘All children’s vaccines in Australia are safe’
NBMLHD Director of Public Health Associate, Professor Bradley Forssman, said by vaccinating, parents are not only protecting their child but the broader community from preventable diseases, such as measles and whooping cough, from spreading to those who may not be able to be vaccinated.
“All children’s vaccines in Australia are safe,” he assured. “It’s important to vaccinate your child on time — even if your child has a runny nose or a slight temperature, they can usually still have their vaccination.”
The NSW vaccination schedule for children and adolescents includes the following: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), haemophilus influenza type B (HIB), polio, pneumococcal, rotavirus, meningococcal ACWY, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and human papillomavirus (HPV).