Research and Development - IMMUNOLOGIST

Let's Survey Opinions on Immunisations!

Primary Middle Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Personal and social capability

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability

1. "Immunisation is one of the best ways to protect yourself, your children and safeguard the health of future generations.

Immunisation remains the safest and most effective way to stop the spread of many of the world’s most infectious diseases. Before the major vaccination campaigns of the 1960s and ’70s, diseases like tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough (pertussis) killed thousands of young children each year. Today, deaths from these diseases are extremely rare in Australia, and the rest of the developed world.

If enough people in the community are immunised, the infection can no longer be spread from person to person and the disease can die out altogether. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated in 1980 after a concerted campaign of surveillance and vaccination led by the World Health Organization. A similar campaign by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has succeeded in reducing polio cases with only a few isolated cases remaining in the developing world. In March 2014, the World Health Organization declared that measles has been eliminated in Australia. It is important to maintain high levels of vaccination against measles, with two doses of measles vaccine required, as cases of measles can still be imported by travellers from countries where the disease is prevalent." (Source: Dept of Health)

2. Investigate the following news items:

ABC News 18 April 2017
ABC News 18 April 2017	ABC News 17 January 2017
ABC News 17 March 2017

• Why were these patients infected in the first place?
    
  
• Who did they then infect?
  
• What is the incubation time?
  
• Why do some people not believe in immunizations?
  
• List the facts you didn't know before reading these articles

3. Read the following articles from

The Conversation 27 February 2015

The Conversation 22 October 2020

The Conversation 4 December 2020

The Conversation 4 February 2022

4. From your reading, what is your opinion about immunizations? Should we have vaccinations or not? Give reasons.

5. Conduct a class family survey about immunizations. Use Survey Monkey to obtain the results from the class. Analyse the results. Are the statistics about immunizations in your area the same as those found in The Conversation?

Allergies - are they on the rise?

Primary Middle Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

1. "Food allergy occurs in around 1 in 20 children and in about 2 in 100 adults. The most common triggers are egg, cow's milk, peanut, tree nuts, seafood, sesame, soy, fish and wheat. The majority of food allergies in children are not severe, and may be 'outgrown' with time. However, peanut, tree nut, seed and seafood allergies are less likely to be outgrown and tend to be lifelong allergies. Some food allergies can be severe, causing life-threatening reactions known as anaphylaxis." (Source: ASCIA)

2. You are to test these figures by conducting a simple survey using the following table:

3. Collate your results. Are your statistics the same as those mentioned from ASCIA in the introductory paragraph? Ask the opinion of the adults in the survey - do they think allergies are on the rise?