'Frightening trend' prompts calls to lift vaccination rates
SHADOW Health Minister Walt Secord says a massive spike in the number of whooping cough cases on the North Coast - 79 cases in April - is a frightening trend.
There were 383 cases in NSW in April 2017, but a fifth of all cases were on the North Coast.
Mr Secord said vaccination rates on the North Coast had slipped to dangerously low levels and the community was witnessing the spread of preventable diseases like whooping cough.
The whooping cough vaccination is free to all babies and pregnant women during their third trimester to give optimal protection to newborns.
"Anyone who has seen images of babies with whooping cough struggling to breathe would immediately vaccinate their children,” he said.
"Immunisation rates on the North Coast are slipping to dangerous levels - but the Liberals and Nationals are opposing the tough laws (Public Health Amendment - Vaccination of Children Attending Child Care Facilities - Bill 2017) simply because they were proposed by Labor.”
