Mother and paediatric registered nurse Camille Echols has posted a brilliant response to the controversial anti-vaccination movement after her 11-year-old daughter was hospitalised.
Taking to Facebook, the US mother shared a photograph of her daughter Ashley in hospital after she reportedly came into contact with a child with chickenpox.
In the post, Camille explained that Ashley had a kidney transplant when she was two years old and was not fully protected by vaccinations herself as a result.
“(Ashley) got one varicella vaccine but couldn’t get the second because she was immunosuppressed and instead of developing immunity, she would have contracted the virus,” Camille posted.
After being exposed to chickenpox, Ashley was rushed to the emergency room.
“She’s getting labwork, injections of immunoglobulin and then we have to wait to see what the infectious disease doctor says. The incubation period of chicken pox is 7-21 days. So even with all we are doing, she could still become sick in the next 3 weeks,” Camille wrote.
“And that would mean an automatic admission to the hospital for IV antiviral meds. She could become very, very sick from this.”
The mother ended her post with a message for all anti-vaxxers to properly educate themselves about the risks of avoiding vaccination.
“There isn’t a single peer reviewed study that came to that conclusion. And the people choosing to skip vaccinations put children like my daughter at risk. She has been through SO much already. And this was avoidable,” she concluded.
Her Facebook post has received incredible international attention and has garnered 86,000 likes and over 100,000 shares.
Adding to her original post, Camille reiterated that she herself has over 10 years experience in transplant and chronic illness population.
On June 28, the mother shared an important update about Ashley’s health, confirming her daughter is “doing well”.
“No signs of illness, thank the Lord!”
According to a recent report from The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, more Australian children are being immunised than ever before, The ABC News notes. However, the report revealed that some individual suburbs and towns had much lower immunisation rates.
“Some of the postcodes with the highest rates of immunisation were Woonona in New South Wales with rates at 99.5 percent, and Broome in Western Australia with 99.2 percent,” AIHW spokesperson Ann Hunt told the ABC.
“At the other end of the spectrum, some of the post codes with the lowest rates was in the Sydney central business district at 70.5 percent, and in Burwood NSW at 72.8 per cent.”
You can find more information about childhood immunisation here.
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