LISTENER SEPTEMBER 7 2019

I

t was a Friday afternoon and GP

Nikki Turner just wanted to go

home. But her records showed the

two preschoolers in her consulting

room had received none of the usual

childhood vaccinations. At the end

of the consultation, she fought the

urge to get out the door and said to

the mother: “I see your children aren’t vac-

cinated. Have you got any specific concerns

about vaccines?”

As it turned out, she did. “She had a

specific worry about the MMR [measles,

mumps, and rubella] vaccine and whether

it was developed with an aborted fetus. I

could address that ... and she felt comfort-

able enough to vaccinate her children.

“For years, that woman had been told:

‘Vaccines are safe, get on with it.’” says

Turner, who is director of the Immunisation

Advisory Centre. “Nobody had said: ‘What

are your actual concerns? How can we help

with that?’”

That’s how the vaccination conversation

should go, she says. “You really listen, and

you listen to the concerns the parents have,

and not the concerns you think they have.”

All over the world, reluctance to immu-

nise is seen as a public-health threat. The

World Health Organisation (WHO) has

named “vaccine hesitancy” as one of 10

concerns for 2019, saying it’s at least partly

responsible for the 30% rise in measles cases

globally. It’s a trend that’s hit this country:

more than 700 cases have been confirmed

in the Auckland region so far this year and

the nationwide total is well over 800. In the

past two weeks, passengers on two flights

• one from Los Angeles to Auckland and the
  other from Wellington to Auckland – were
  asked to check their immunity to measles
  after a traveller unknowingly flew with the
  disease.
  Worries about immunisation are only part
  of the vaccination-promotion puzzle. Fac-
  tors such as poverty and transport are also
  being blamed for falling rates. But one cause
  contributes to another, says Turner. If it’s
  hard for people to get to the doctor and they
  see something scary on social media, that
  might tip the balance away from making
  the effort to get it done.
  Vaccination experts say that the way
  health professionals talk to parents about
  vaccination is important. And research
  shows that some well-intentioned tactics
  can backfire and entrench anti-vax views.
  Vaccination advocates divide par-
  ents into three groups: those who

Softly, softly

What’s the best way to counter

vaccine refusers? by ROSEMARY BARRACLOUGH

VACCINATION

Some US paediatricians

take a tough stance

on vaccine refusers,

telling them to find

another doctor.

Outbreak: the

measles virus; below,

an illustration of the

virus.