[Cindy]

Just was wondering what percentage of immigrants with children relocate to New Zealand without vaccination. I'm a concerned mom that hasn't vaccinated her daughter and after reading about meningitis, I'm wondering if I should have her inoculated before leaving for NZ.

[jubjub]

With regards to the meningitis, the vaccine here is specific to the NZ strain of the disease.

Also I beleive they are stopping it over here for the over 5's, think someone posted a thread recently about it, and I cant find the info quickly enough with my dying laptop battery!

[nippa&pippa]

My children is fully vaccinated, I have seen what meningitis did to other child and to my friend...not worth a risk to not to vaccine :no
My sister is deputy dean at high school in auckland, she told me that she had lots of children with meningitis before vaccine because there is high number of meningitis in auckland and NI.

[K&CS]

This is the thread:- http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=10212

I agree that the results of meningitis are devastating but not sure what I'd do if I had my time again, knowing what I now know of the injection...

[Tia Maria]

I vaccinate mine, if only because herd immunity often drops when there are various vaccine concerns, increasing the chance even more of your child getting the disease.

It is always a difficult choice as it means the importance for vaccination rises at the time most people feel the lowest confidence in the vaccine!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity

Last year I was quite surprised that there was Whooping Cough at my son's pre-school and as I was pregnant at the time it really worried me. :( I'm not sure if it was a one off though, or whether it is very common in NZ.

Cheers

Tia

[Cindy]

Whooping cough is common where I'm from due largely to Colorado being one of few States that allows choice to or not to. I recently received a tetenus shot for work and became very ill with swollen lymph nodes above my collar bone shoulder and underarm. Had to be seen by various doctors and was later told that it wasn't JUST a regular tetanus shot. They said it was the new and improved version that's combined with whooping cough. Since my ordeal, I haven't been the same. I wish I new what to do for my daughter. I'm sooooo lost as to what would be the best direction to take.

[tick tock]

Cindy, make a decsion and stick with it. I'm not sure but you may find that the schools require children to be vac'd...does anyone know?....

My mother was against all vacs and as a child I had nothing!!!! Yes I got ill but knowing what I know now, I think I was very lucky.

All my children have been vac'd and I as an adult have had many of the vac's because I have been travling all over the place.

Its a personal decsion:confused:

[Tia Maria]

Tick Tock wrote:

I'm not sure but you may find that the schools require children to be vac'd...does anyone know?....

I'm not sure about schools, bur I know our pre-school wanted to see their certificates. But as they both had up to date certificates, I'm not sure what their policy would have been if they hadn't been vaccinated. Worth checking out. :nice1

Cheers

Tia

[nippa&pippa]

I'm not sure about schools, bur I know our pre-school wanted to see their certificates. But as they both had up to date certificates, I'm not sure what their policy would have been if they hadn't been vaccinated. Worth checking out. :nice1

Cheers

Tia

My son's kindy asked for his certificates to proved he is fully vaccinated too. I don't know what happen if he is not fully vaccinated too, agree with tia, get checking out

[andrewandjane]

not had ours done for various reasons, have found a school here that is enlightened enough to say they recognise the parents rights to decide whats best for the kids so dont insist on it.

[sarahw]

I appreciate people's right to choose & that there are risks with whichever route you choose. However, I know people whose child became v. ill within a short period of time & died from Menangicocle B (meningitis)
- personally I don't want to take that risk with my daughter's life.

The swimming class she goes to wanted to check that she'd had her injections too before they let us book lessons (but I'm guessing that they don't check that with casual swimmers which kind of defeats the object so don't quite understand why they asked!!)

Cindy - if you want to have your child vaccinated have it done here since its free and as Jubjub says menangicocle vaccine is specific to NZ... But talk it over with your nurse/Dr first & read as much as you need to on the subject before making your decision.

[nippa&pippa]

I appreciate people's right to choose & that there are risks with whichever route you choose. However, I know people whose child became v. ill within a short period of time & died from Menangicocle B (meningitis)
- personally I don't want to take that risk with my daughter's life.



:yes

[ElizabethD]

At least you have a choice for your child if they are under 5. My kids aged 8 and 11 will not be offered the vaccine. the government will not allow it for anyone over 5 who entered the country after Dec 31 2006. Please see my other post on this--I am outraged as are some prominent members of the health community.

[sarahw]

Elizabeth, its rediculous that you can't get your kids vaccinated - can you not even pay to have it done? The Government have spent a fortune advertising vaccinations for under 16's and to not vaccinate immigrants' kids who want to take it up over the age of 5 is just stupid! My child is NZ born & only 9 mo' old so it was offered immediately & I don't see why it should be different for anyone else coming into the country - that's like being treated like a second-class citizen - surely its discrimination!

[westies]

After being here for 12 months and hearing some horrific stories of children suffering and even dying due to nil protection, because of no vaccines, we feel so so glad that our kids are fully protected against everything, we would personally feel responsible if they contracted something which is preventable, again individual choice.
Hope you make the right decision for your little ones, after all they are relying on you.
Good luck

[gil]

Ours were all up to date with UK vaccines before we came over and have now had Men B and Hep B here. We had to declare son's last tetanus jab date before he could go to camp.
We got here in November and because we had our first Men B before Dec 31, all ours are free. Had we not started then but waited till after Dec 31 we would have had to pay. (Thanks to The Piesleys for informing us on that one!)

Gil

[Tia Maria]

I've just spotted this in my son's Well Child Book:

The Immunisation Certificate

Children need an immunisation certificate to show if they are fully immunised or not. The nurse/doctor will sign the certificate when giving the 15 month immunisations and again after the immunisations prior to school entry. If you choose against immunisation the certificate can be signed by the nurse/doctor at any time.

When your child starts at an early childhood centre, kohanga reo or primary school you will be asked to show the certificate. The information, which you can check, will be recorded in a register.

The Medical Officer of Health can check the register. If there is a threat of disease in your area, children not immunised may be asked to stay at home until after the disease has gone, to help stop it spreading. the purpose of the certificate is to safeguard the health of New Zealand children.

It then says it in Maori, but I won't attempt to type that! :D

Cheers

Tia

[robberger]

Not vaccinated. http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html

The risk/benefit decision aside, we hate killing unborn children and therefore do not use products which contain aborted baby tissues.

Many vaccines do just that: Biavax (rubella), Havrix (hepatitis A), Imovax (rabies), MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), Varivax (chickenpox), among others.

My child's life is not worth more than another child's life...not even an unborn child's life.

My desire for my own and my children's health will not be used by the medical industry as justification or motivation to continue the very profitable abortion 'byproduct' trade.

[Oregonkiwi]

therefore do not use products which contain aborted baby tissues.

This statement is very misleading - vaccines do not "contain aborted baby tissues".

The non-conspiracy-theory version is here:

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/gen/contamination.htm
No new fetal tissue is used to produce vaccines. Cell lines generated from a single fetal tissue source are sometimes used for some vaccines. Vaccine manufacturers obtain human cell lines from FDA-certified cell banks.

Fetal Tissue and Vaccines. Some vaccines such as rubella and varicella are made from human cell-line cultures, and some of these cell lines originated from aborted fetal tissue, obtained from legal abortions in the 1960s. No new fetal tissue is needed to produce cell lines to make these vaccines, now or in the future.

In 1964, there were an estimated 20,000 babies born with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) in the United States. When women contract rubella disease during early pregnancy, this often causes miscarriage or
neurological damage to the unborn child, resulting in the child suffering blindness, deafness and retardation. In 1993, the number of CRS cases was seven, reflecting a 99.9% reduction in this preventable disease since 1964.



Use whatever justifications you want for not vaccinating your kids, Rob, but don't tell lies.

[robberger]

Dear Oregonkiwi:

I may be ignorant--in fact on occasion I've proven myself to be--but I am not a liar and therefore do not lie.

This U.S. government source (CDC) in the same article makes this blanket statement: "Vaccines are safe and effective."

There are a lot of credible sources which contest that very fact on both counts. Let the readers decide which sources are more credible, if it is something in which they are interested in educating themselves.

Regardless, this government source states quite clearly that

"Cell lines generated from a single fetal tissue source are sometimes used for some vaccines." and

"...some of these cell lines originated from aborted fetal tissue, obtained from legal abortions in the 1960s."

Perhaps you see a technical distinction between using (2?) babies aborted in the 60's (and 70's, btw) and subsequently used for vaccine sources versus babies aborted now and subsequently used in 'beauty' products or as stem cell sources. I do not. Nor do I believe that simply because only a few babies are identified as being sources of vaccines, 'no other babies were harmed in the making of this product.' Nonsense. Nor does the CDC have worldwide jurisdiction.

There are in many cases vaccines which do not contain aborted baby tissue cell lines; and I likely have no moral problem with them. One must consider many factors in deciding about vaccines, and I have stated my primary objection to many of the more common vaccine sources. Some of the vaccines do not have alternatives to aborted baby tissue lines, among which is the Rubella vaccine used in MMR--a common vaccine. People ought to know this...because to some people this is an important consideration.

Not to you, I know, but there are others on this forum.