Couple flee to avoid hepatitis injection for 2-day-old son
Sunday, August 24, 2008
AUSTRALIAN police and welfare officials yesterday were searching for a couple who went into hiding with their two-day-old son to avoid having him forcibly vaccinated against hepatitis B, officials said.
The family, including the boy's mother who was diagnosed with hepatitis B several years ago, went on the run after a court ordered them to vaccinate the newborn against the disease that can lead to liver cancer and cirrhosis, the father told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Police and welfare authorities were hunting for the Sydney family ahead of a court-imposed deadline to ensure their baby is vaccinated by tomorrow, authorities said.
"DOCS and local police are still looking to find the family," a spokeswoman for the New South Wales Department of Community Services (DOCS) told reporters ahead of a court-imposed Monday-deadline for the child to be vaccinated.
But the baby's father, who is seeking an injunction against the court order, was adamant the family would stay on the run indefinitely.
"We gathered some things and fled the house," the unidentified father, a financial adviser, told the Herald.
"I don't agree with the one-size-fits-all policy. He is a small baby (2.49 kilogrammes) and they give the same dose to babies twice his size. I just wanted time to get more information about the vaccine."
The baby's father and Chinese-born mother went into hiding on Friday when child protection authorities won a state Supreme Court order after the couple refused to have their son vaccinated following his birth in a Sydney hospital.
The couple believe aluminium in the vaccine could cause him more damage than contracting hepatitis B. They feel the disease could be more effectively managed than any potential neurological damage they fear the child might contract from the vaccine, they told the Herald.
While vaccinations are not compulsory in Australia, New South Wales state health policy mandates that parents of all babies born to hepatitis-B-positive mothers must be offered immunoglobulin for the child within 12 hours of birth and four doses of the vaccine over six months.
When the father failed to show up for a doctor's appointment to find out more about the risks of vaccinations, he was told the child would be taken from him for vaccination, prompting the family to flee, he told the paper. He said he had refused to have his daughter vaccinated against hepatitis B when she was born in 2005.
New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Frank Mennilli declined to say whether the parents would be charged once they were found. He said that will have to be assessed once the child is located. AFP
The family, including the boy's mother who was diagnosed with hepatitis B several years ago, went on the run after a court ordered them to vaccinate the newborn against the disease that can lead to liver cancer and cirrhosis, the father told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Police and welfare authorities were hunting for the Sydney family ahead of a court-imposed deadline to ensure their baby is vaccinated by tomorrow, authorities said.
"DOCS and local police are still looking to find the family," a spokeswoman for the New South Wales Department of Community Services (DOCS) told reporters ahead of a court-imposed Monday-deadline for the child to be vaccinated.
But the baby's father, who is seeking an injunction against the court order, was adamant the family would stay on the run indefinitely.
"We gathered some things and fled the house," the unidentified father, a financial adviser, told the Herald.
"I don't agree with the one-size-fits-all policy. He is a small baby (2.49 kilogrammes) and they give the same dose to babies twice his size. I just wanted time to get more information about the vaccine."
The baby's father and Chinese-born mother went into hiding on Friday when child protection authorities won a state Supreme Court order after the couple refused to have their son vaccinated following his birth in a Sydney hospital.
The couple believe aluminium in the vaccine could cause him more damage than contracting hepatitis B. They feel the disease could be more effectively managed than any potential neurological damage they fear the child might contract from the vaccine, they told the Herald.
While vaccinations are not compulsory in Australia, New South Wales state health policy mandates that parents of all babies born to hepatitis-B-positive mothers must be offered immunoglobulin for the child within 12 hours of birth and four doses of the vaccine over six months.
When the father failed to show up for a doctor's appointment to find out more about the risks of vaccinations, he was told the child would be taken from him for vaccination, prompting the family to flee, he told the paper. He said he had refused to have his daughter vaccinated against hepatitis B when she was born in 2005.
New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Frank Mennilli declined to say whether the parents would be charged once they were found. He said that will have to be assessed once the child is located. AFP
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