Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows a current affairs report that explores the issue of free pneumococcal vaccines for all infants to help prevent pneumococcal meningitis. It includes interviews with Dr Jenny Royle from Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital and Tina McCarthy from the Meningitis Centre. Senator Kay Patterson, the federal coalition minister for health from 2001 to 2003, defends the government’s decision to vaccinate only those most at risk, such as Indigenous children, saying she has a responsibility to ensure that the health budget is spent effectively.

Educational value points

• The clip presents different sides of the debate about whether the pneumococcal vaccine should be provided free to infants. The story was aired on The 7.30 Report, a current affairs television program that aims to give balanced coverage. Thus the clip includes interviews with advocates of a free vaccine and gives then federal health minister Senator Kay Patterson a chance to explain why the Government had decided not to fund free vaccines.

• Pneumococcal meningitis is an infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord caused by pneumococcal bacteria, and is a major cause of hospitalisation and death among children under 5 years of age in Australia. Although the infection can be treated with intravenous antibiotics if caught early, about 10 per cent of children who contract pneumococcal meningitis die, and 20 per cent are left with severe disabilities as a result of brain damage.

• This clip reveals that the prohibitive cost of the pneumococcal vaccine means, as Dr Royle observes, that some families cannot afford to immunise their children. The vaccine, a course of three injections, costs about $500, but has been shown to be almost 100 per cent effective against the most virulent strains of pneumococcal bacteria. In some parts of the world some strains of the disease are now resistant to penicillin, making vaccination more vital.

• The clip was made in 2003 and indicates that the Australian Government, which uses revenue largely raised through taxation to fund health services for the community, has a limited budget and therefore must make choices about which services to provide. In 2005, in response to pressure from health bodies and the public and the recommendations of its Immunisation Advisory Body, the Government provided free pneumococcal vaccines to all infants.

• The ethical question of what price the community places on a life is raised in this clip when Senator Patterson states that decisions about health funding, and in this case which vaccines to prioritise, are based on the most effective use of the ‘health dollar‘. As the Senator acknowledges this can be highly emotive, for example the parent of a child with pneumococcal meningitis may see the decision not to offer free vaccinations as callous.

• While Senator Patterson says that it is the Government’s responsibility to ‘make sure we get the best outcome for every dollar we spend on health’, the Meningitis Centre argues that it costs more in economic terms not to vaccinate against pneumococcal meningitis. Failure to immunise means that the health system bears the cost of treating those who contract pneumococcal meningitis, as well as the on-going care for those who are disabled by the disease.