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View Full Version : How many cases of whooping cough are there in NZ every year?



Momtezuma Tuatara
26-01-09, 11:43 AM
Seaweed put up this url (http://www.stuff.co.nz/4829150a11.html), in which Petousis-Harris says this
"... Whooping cough (pertussis), a disease particularly severe on small babies, was on the rise because of the poor rates of immunisation.

"There's a lot of hospitalisations and we have one death a year from that disease," Petousis-Harris said.

That data is grossly misleading It's the usual lying by omission that the Immunisation Advisory Centre indulges in the whole time.

And she also had the gall to say in this article that:
Misinformation about immunisation was "alive and well in New Zealand" and also played a part in the low rates, Petousis-Harris said.

she's the best example of misinformation that I can find in the whole of New Zealand.

I specialise in fact however, right from the "horse's mouth" I wonder why she never bothers to look at those teeth?

The total cases for 2008 is 437 cases (http://www.surv.esr.cri.nz/PDF_surveillance/MthSurvRpt/2008_2nd/200812DecNat.pdf) ,and according to the Public Health Service July to September report (http://www.surv.esr.cri.nz/PDF_surveillance/NZPHSR/2008_2/NZPHSR2008Q3Dec.pdf), the annual rate is a, " statistically significant decrease".

But note this comment in that report. There were 12 more cases between July to September 2008, than in the same period 2007

Comments: there has been a statistically significant quarterly increase from the previous quarter (70 cases) and from the same quarter last year
(82 cases)

Not to mention the shocking sentence construction....


How does 12 more cases over 4 million people, in a three month period, compared to July September 2007, justify Petousis-Harris's utterly stupid comments? ......"The case rate is going up because of lack of immunisation"


The fact is, that just over 90% of New Zealand kids DO get the pertussis shots, and have since about 2004. And they added another shot into the schedule recently. I'm surprised they aren't claiming that the extra shot has resulted in a drop in cases you see below!!!!!! :chair:
So lets look at this disinformation more closely, because we really need to sort out just WHO IS SPREADING the misinformation here. The page to look at is this one :http://www.surv.esr.cri.nz/surveillance/NZPHSR.php (http://www.surv.esr.cri.nz/surveillance/NZPHSR.php)


and you look in the December report of every year to get the annual totals, and you find this:


Pertussis cases:
2008 437 cases (http://www.surv.esr.cri.nz/PDF_surveillance/MthSurvRpt/2008_2nd/200812DecNat.pdf) (I had to extract that from the month cumulative stats (http://www.surv.esr.cri.nz/surveillance/monthly_surveillance.php) page, because it wasn't in the Dec report. Their report construction is becoming increasingly sloppy.)


2007 1,603 cases
2006 1,600 cases
2005 3,794 cases
2004, 1,953 cases
2003, 1,964 cases.

Those of you who have read my books and seen the graphs, knows that this pattern is EXACTLY the same as the preceding two decades :LMAO:

So suddenly we have this new increase in cases causes by vaccination rates being too low???

Petoussis-Harris is an insult to an ostrich.

MinorityView
26-01-09, 11:58 AM
Ostrich is not the beasty that comes to mind. Something nasty with a lot of teeth and a bad temper and a snarl. Perhaps a weasel?

Momtezuma Tuatara
26-01-09, 12:37 PM
Yes, perhaps ostrich isn't a good comparison.. that being too nice...

MinorityView
26-01-09, 12:47 PM
going wildly off-topic here...

In the Anabasis, by Xenophon, the Greeks encounter ostriches. They didn't have a word for this critter, as there were no ostriches in Greece (there were in Persia, though) and Xenophon, ingeniously, called them by the Greek word for sparrow, modified by "giant". I wonder what the readers back in Greece got as a mental picture from this formulation? Not a weasel! There, digression over and we are back on topic.

Seaweed
26-01-09, 01:20 PM
:giggle:On the greek theme, I am making potato mousaka right at this moment. I was thinking more of a ferret myself. I saw one of them the other day standing by the side of the road on my way to the beach. They are horrible creatures.

MinorityView
26-01-09, 01:26 PM
A ferret is perfect. Or, if you want ugly, an oppossum is hideous, at least by human standards. Looks a lot like a giant rat.

Alas, the Ancient Greeks never got to eat potato mousaka. All the potatoes were still over in Peru, which wasn't yet Peru, of course.

Seaweed
26-01-09, 01:32 PM
I would prefer to use aubergines ( egg plant ) but I can't get any organic ones & I grow the potatoes. Possums I am sure are what you call opposums? They are quite nasty on the environment here too & they make horrible noises at night. Kinda like a crazy old man who forgot to take his lithium heavy breathing at your back door.

MinorityView
26-01-09, 01:45 PM
Great description! Now, who are we slandering by calling her a possum? I lost track!

Spy
26-01-09, 01:53 PM
Possums I am sure are what you call opposums?

Nope. :D Possum as in the animal from Australia-Oceania is a different animal to Nothern American opossum, but then the Nothern American opossums are sometimes also called possums. Confused? :LMAO: They are all marsupials though and may be distantly related, but not quite the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opossum

Momtezuma Tuatara
26-01-09, 01:59 PM
Then we are agreed that "ferret" is the best insult :p ??

MinorityView
26-01-09, 10:25 PM
Yes, I think ferret will do it. Small, vicious, sharp teeth, unreasonable behavior, not good looking.

Now, who are we insulting?

Momtezuma Tuatara
27-01-09, 10:39 AM
The people who said that whooping cough rates were increasing in New Zealand, because of low immunisation rates (92% at last count).

MinorityView
27-01-09, 12:15 PM
Oh, right, the quack ferret mercury pushing jerks! Them.

Momtezuma Tuatara
27-01-09, 01:33 PM
ex-mercury pushing jerks... :p