100 times increase in Whooping Cough - is it REALLY just more testing?

The headline was a surprise - but the content was just more of the same old -same old. The more than 100 times increase in reported cases of pertussis (whooping cough) isn't real -it's just more testing. So the fact that we have gone from 300 cases in 1991 to more than 35,000 cases today is just a figment of our imagination -it hasn't actually happened. What a relief!

And the vilification of families who have chosen not to vaccinate by the media, the medical community and the government that has occurred over the last 2 years because of this non-existent epidemic - well, sorry about that but somehow, you're still responsible because even though the epidemic doesn't exist, it doesn't exist more in areas with low vaccination.

The fact is that vaccination rates have increased across the board so even areas which historically have had lower than average vaccination rates are many points higher today then they were then.

And whether the rates actually are lower in say Mullumbimby than in neighbouring Ballina as we've been told is a matter for conjecture since despite numerous calls and letters to the Public Health Unit which have gone unanswered (it seems they have a policy of not answering my questions) and requests by my own local Member of Parliament to the NSW Minister for Health's office which are still not answered regarding this question, we still have no data on the relative numbers of cases of pertussis being reported in various health areas within shires.

But be that as it may, the fact is that the government has declared an epidemic by their own figures and now, faced with the inconvenient fact (which we have been stating for years) that vaccination rates are at an all-time high, they are now trying to say that there was no epidemic in the first place -it's only smoke and mirrors. Don't count on our statistics -they're only rubbery figures, after all.

Oh, and we haven't actually seen an increase in pertussis deaths either because Professor Booy says that they were much higher ten years ago. In fact, there were NO deaths at all from pertussis for well over a decade prior to the deaths that occurred in 2009 - one of which was in a child too young to be vaccinated and the other 2 in older, partially-vaccinated infants. So again, don't trust the government's statistics because they seem to be either inaccurate or simply made up on the spot!

In addition, the elephant in the room that is now well-known in the medical community but almost never referred to is the shift in the pertussis bacteria -most likely due to mass-use of the whooping cough vaccine. Just as overuse of antibiotics may lead to the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, so too, it appears, does overuse of vaccines against bacterial illnesses like pertussis.

The strains of bacteria circulating in the community are quite different to the strain in the vaccine, making the shot less effective or completely ineffective -nobody seems to know for sure. What we do know is that this strain is far more virulent and dangerous, leading to increased deaths in infants - not only here in Australia, but around the world wherever this vaccine is used.

So not only is the pertussis shot not preventing vaccinated people from getting pertussis - it could also be responsible for the increased death rate.

Please read the whole article that you can find a link to below and be sure to leave your comments or send a letter to the editor.

More testing finds more coughing

THE outbreak of whooping cough in NSW has more to do with better diagnosis than with lack of immunisation, according to one of the state's foremost experts in the field.

Robert Booy, a professor of child health at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, said there was no doubt whooping cough increased in areas with low vaccination rates.

But there is no evidence to suggest vaccination rates have fallen in NSW, where about 90 per cent of children are immunised.

To read more, go to http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/more-testing-finds-more-coughing-20110703-1gxcw.html