Dr David Moss – General Practitioner MBBS, BN, Grad Dip Public Health, FRACGP
Suffolk Park
Nearly 1,000 people, mostly children, just died in Madagascar from measles. Measles is easily preventable through modern, safe vaccination.
These facts are beyond dispute. Since September 2018 over 70,000 people have contracted measles in Madagascar, the majority under 15 years, and over one-third of cases in the under-5-year-olds.
The outbreak started in the unvaccinated and it’s spreading like wildfire. Measles immunisation rates in Madagascar were 58 per cent in 2017. The majority of their current cases are in the unvaccinated.
I am curious as to how the anti-vaxxers among your readership might try to respond to these senseless deaths. Because this is what they want for Australia. While the Australian national measles immunisation rates are 90 per cent in 2-year-olds, guess what the rates are in Mullumbimby? Forty-eight per cent of two-year-olds. Less than Madagascar. The irresponsibility staggers me. Don’t think it couldn’t happen here.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
