The measles outbreak continues unabated

There is little doubt that failure to vaccinate is placing many people at risk. Over the last six or so years the world has seen more than 750,000 cases of measles. The majority of such cases would have been preventable if the child involved had received two doses of measles vaccine. Anti-vaccinators continue to vigorously oppose compulsory vaccination against a wide range of infectious diseases, including measles. Should we leave such a critical decision as to whether to vaccinate or not to individuals - or does the state have an over-riding responsibility to protect all its citizens? For many, failure to vaccinate is seen to edge us much closer to a wide range of childhood and adult infections which should have disappeared decades ago.

The issue is simple: people are the wealth of Australia and it is not simply the number of people that matters but also their skills, abilities, composition and health status. People are the critical human capital which Australia has a responsibility to preserve, protect and bolster. Maintaining a healthy and robust population is critical to Australia's future security and the responsibility to ensure that this is the case rests with the government.

The diffusion of the measles virus over much of the last 190 years involved the virus being carried by infected people aboard ships destined for Australia. Today the only thing that has changed is that aircraft have largely replaced ships. The measles virus continues to accompany infected tourists and visitors arriving in Australia and/or by Australians returning home after visiting parts of Africa, Asia and the Pacific where they have come into contact with someone harbouring the disease. As well, it is also clear that particular racial and ethnic groups are particularly at risk to an attack of measles. Maoris and Pacific Islanders in New Zealand, Indians, Hispanics and African Americans in the USA and Pakistanis and Indians in the UK as well as Asians in Australia all show a much higher level of vulnerability to exposure to the disease.

Given such factors, there is no room for complacency. Measles should have disappeared from Australia decades ago and nothing has changed about the virus. The real issue lies in human behaviour. The failure to vaccinate helps explain the persistence of the measles virus throughout much of our world and edges us closer to a possible pandemic. Given this, how can we possibly ignore the need to vaccinate our children against a wide range of childhood infections?