Dr Lance O'Sullivan: It was when my daughter got sick that I realised how important immunisation is

Reporter Sunday Star Times

Dr Lance O'Sullivan writes from the heart, and from the head: "It was 1996 and we were young parents. I was at medical school when I came upon an anti-immunisation pamphlet left in one of our lecture theatres.

"I was suspicious of the establishment at the time. You need to understand, I had grown up a welfare-dependent "half-caste" (I hate that term) boy living with his mother, escaping from a life of alcohol, crime and a level of violence that I would not tolerate for my daughters. An under-achiever, I was expelled from two secondary schools. I feel I had a reason to be angry at "the system".

"Then I became a father. It changed my life. I needed to be a responsible adult caring for a son, then a daughter – eventually seven children. We were young parents and wanted to do only the best for these precious beings.

"I read the pamphlet. It described "studies" in the Netherlands into communities that didn't look like mine, but I took little persuasion. I stated our second child, our little daughter Te Miringa, would not be immunised.

"At the time my wife Tracy was working as a nurse at the local medical centre and immunising children daily. Yet this was my protest against the establishment that I so mistrusted.

"Fifteen months later, we had a scare. Te Miringa became unwell with high fever and a body rash and the doctors were concerned as there was a measles outbreak locally. And I realised the information from the Netherlands did not reflect my reality.

"We got Te Miringa immunised."

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