‘You are playing with your child’s life’

THE number of measles cases in the United States has been dramatically rising recently, leading some states to consider enforced vaccinations.

An outbreak of measles in the US has been traced back to Disneyland. Source: Supplied

WITH the potentially deadly disease of measles essentially eradicated from Australia thanks to vaccines, it's understandable why some parents grow complacent about keeping up to date with their child's immunisations.

But a NSW mother has bravely shared her story of personal heartbreak in the hope that it will wake parents up to the need to vaccinate their children.

The anti-vaccination movement has been a talking point after a measles outbreak in the US, which has been traced back to the Disneyland amusement park in California.

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The US has been gripped by an outbreak of measles that has spread widely among unvaccinated people. Picture: AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Mike Hutmacher Source: AP

At the latest count, the outbreak had reached 121 people, the majority of whom were unvaccinated.

The spread of the disease — which has now hit three provinces in Canada — sparked a scathing attack on the anti-vaccination movement by Toronto mother Jennifer Hibben-White, whose baby may have also contracted the highly contagious disease.

NSW mother Wendy Holborow was touched by the mother's comments and she has decided to share her personal heartbreak over the issue.

Mrs Holborow's daughter Lisa died in 1982 due to complications related to her contracting measles as an infant. She hadn't been vaccinated.

Jennifer Hibben-White's story inspired her to speak out about the need for vaccination.

"It brought back all of the memories of our daughter," Mrs Holborow told news.com.au. "It never leaves you."

Lisa, Mrs Holborow's middle child, was born in 1972 when the measles vaccinations were first being introduced in Australia. Lisa was scheduled to have the first injection but she had a cold, so the doctors rescheduled.

Then at 12 months, before she could be immunised, Lisa contracted the measles. She did not have an especially severe case of the disease and recovered quickly.

She grew into a bright, talented and co-ordinated girl, popular with her friends and a talented dancer on stage.

Lisa Holborow died in 1982 after complications related to measles. Source: Supplied

But at the age of nine, the family noticed a change in Lisa.

"She just said that she was having trouble adding up. She started to say, 'I don't want to ride my bike,' because she was almost falling off. She couldn't remember the steps for dancing, and she was one of the star pupils," Mrs Holborow said.

Doctors were initially stumped about what was causing her different behaviour. Soon, her condition worsened and she began to have seizures.

Just before her 10th birthday, she was diagnosed with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare chronic conditions that swells the brain. Doctors traced the condition back to her earlier contraction of the measles.

Mrs Holborow was told that she had a matter of months left before she would lose her daughter.

"By the end, she couldn't walk, she went blind very gradually, she only lasted six months from diagnosis," Mrs Holborow said.

But there was one consolation about the way the disease took hold.

"There's no pain. She was with us. We were able to keep her home and give her lots of attention. She didn't know she was dying," Mrs Holborow said.

"So there was no pain for her. But it was cruel for everybody around her."

Wendy Holborow says she is both angered and saddened by the anti-vaccination movement. Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP Source: AFP

Mrs Holborow choked up when discussing the toll the terminal illness took on her family.

"It was very hard living with that knowledge," she said.

And the loss has had lasting consequences. Mrs Holborow's son, who was 12 when Lisa died, now has a family of his own and has a tendency to "think the worst" when his children fall ill.

Given what her family has had to endure, Mrs Holborow is baffled as to why any Australian family would choose not to vaccinate their children.

"There is still no cure for (SSPE) and it is considered rare in Western society because of vaccination and yet people still choose not to vaccinate. Unbelievable," she said.

A doctor administers a vaccine to a four-year-old. Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP Source: AFP

She said people who didn't vaccinate were playing "Russian roulette" with their children's lives.

"It makes me angry but also sad that their children might go through what our Lisa did," she said.

"If there's a chance that you can save your child, any parent should surely do it.

"There used to be all these diseases that were rampant and they still are in Third World countries.

"If you don't vaccinate, you are playing with your child's life."

She said that she chose to share her story in the hope that she could make anti-vaxxers reconsider their positions.

"I think it's almost hard to reason with them," she said. "I hope it changes someone's mind," she said.

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