Science Media Centre

Whooping cough infections are on the rise and health officials are concerned the number of cases could reach epidemic proportions. Despite a free national vaccination scheme, cases of whooping cough are increasing in the northern South Island. Crown Research Institute ESR has confirmed to Radio New Zealand that  there has been 147 cases identified this [...]

Mark Hotton writes in this opinion piece about why he and his partner have decided to vaccinate their child. Hotton discusses his research, in which he found a number of websites advocating against vaccination, but explains where they are incorrect, and what influenced him to choose vaccination. An excerpt: (read in full here) “Part of [...]

The British Medical Journal has described Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 study, in which the MMR vaccine was linked to autism, as an ‘elaborate fraud’. An editorial in the journal stated that the results of his experiment were not simply a product of mistake,  and that his ‘misreporting was gross’.  It is thought that his motivation may [...]

Maryanne Twentyman writes in the Waikato Times about a clinic’s controversial means of encouraging people to undergo smear tests, vaccinations or B4 School checks: paying them $10. The tactic, which has the support of the Waikato District Health Board, may be the first of its kind in New Zealand and if successful, the clinic may [...]

Janine Rankin writes in the Manawatu Standard about the gardasil vaccine, which health experts are urging young women to use to protect themselves from infection by the HPV virus. The virus is known to cause cervical cancer in some women, and some experts are hailing the vaccine as a ‘major breakthrough’, although it has become [...]

Janine Rankin writes in the Manawatu Standard about the importance of detection and prevention of cervical cancer. New Zealand’s ability to do so has improved recently due to more accurate smear tests which are able to test for the HPV virus at the same time, and professional are also urging young women to be vaccinated. [...]

Several recent media reports have questioned the safety record of Gardasil, the human papiloma virus (HPV) vaccine offered free-of-charge to teenage girls in New Zealand, and have linked various adverse effects to the vaccine: Timaru Herald: Call to shelve vaccine over adverse reactions TVNZ Breakfast: Gardasil Timaru TVNZ: West Coast school refuses Gardasil vaccine Experts [...]

Prestigious medical journal The Lancet has formally retracted the paper in which Andrew Wakefield, the doctor behind claims that the MMR vaccine can be linked to autism, first claimed such effects. The MMR, or measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, came under scrutiny in the late 1990s when Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor, wrote a paper [...]

More funding for immunisation in New Zealand could have a significant effect, possibly eliminating measles and substantially reducing the incidence of other diseases, says a local expert. Dr Nikki Turner, director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at Auckland University, says the government subsidies need to be heightened to ensure that medical practices have the ability [...]

Researchers say a vaccination programme starting in September, reaching 70 per cent of the US population and targeting children first, could effectively curtail the H1N1 pandemic as the US moves into winter. The authors of the paper, published in Science tomorrow, used a computer model and up-to-date information about the pandemic to simulate how it [...]