Many of the parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated are informed, articulate and independent thinkers with a suspicion of the medical establishment. They do not want the State to dictate to them in the important matter of their children's health.
The State wants 95 per cent of children to be immunised against measles, but the growing anti-vaccination movement is going to make that near-impossible. In Britain, avid campaigners include the Allergy Induced Autism Group, Jabs, the Informed Parent Group and the International Vaccination Newsletter.
In the US, where vaccination is mandatory for school enrolment in 50 states, websites disseminate information from vaccine dissenters. The Informed Parents Vaccination homepage claims that the US Food and Drug Administration's Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System receives about 11,000 reports of serious adverse reactions to vaccination annually, some one per cent (112 cases) of which are deaths from vaccine reactions. It alleges that "both national and international studies have shown vaccination to be a cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In the Republic, the Informed Immunisation Network was set up by parents who believe that they have a right to be fully informed about the pros and cons of vaccination. The network argues that the Department of Health gives only one point of view, in favour of vaccination, when it should be presenting a balanced picture.
"I am not an extremist but, based on the information I have, I am happy with my decision not to have my children immunised," says Anne Dunne, a member of the network.
Last year, the network brought in anti-vaccine campaigner Dr Vera Schreibner for a speaking tour of the Republic. Dr Schreibner told audiences that she was developing a breath monitor for babies when she observed a connection between SIDS and vaccination. Among those who heard Schreibner speak, was Dublin mother Rosemary Seymour (whose stage name is Rose Henderson).
"If parents knew about the link with cot death, they wouldn't vaccinate," she asserts. She had her first child immunised "because it was the thing to do", but changed her mind on the matter following the home-birth of her second child. Nor does she intend to have her 10-day-old baby, Joshua - also born at home - immunised. The two older Seymour children have already had measles, which in their cases lasted only three days. Their mother regards measles as a difficult but manageable illness and believes children need to get childhood diseases in order to build strong immune systems against diseases like cancer.
"Why should I compromise my child's immune system by allowing them to be vaccinated?" she asks. Vaccination is part of the "quick fix" attitude to healthcare, an approach that shuns the natural reactions of the body to infection, in her view. Suspicious of the medical industry, she wonders whether the "big health conglomerates really have an interest in my babies' health at heart". Seymour does not accept the argument that a 95 per cent vaccination rate for measles would result in "herd immunity", protecting all children against measles. She is convinced that mass vaccination may actually cause more illness than it prevents and that the medical establishment would see this, if only it were willing to conduct the necessary research.
Another Dublin mother who heard Dr Schreibner speak was Denise McCabe, who is in her third year of training in homeopathy. Like Seymour, she had her first child vaccinated but when her daughter developed eczema, then asthma, she began to question the wisdom of conforming to medical advice. Her second daughter was not vaccinated and has been totally healthy.
"The alternative view is that if you are susceptible to a disease, like measles, you will get it. If you are not susceptible, you will not get it," she says. Childhood diseases boost the immune system in preparation for adult life, while mass vaccination may be weakening people's immune systems and be responsible for the rise in auto-immune disorders, she argues. As a homeopath, she also questions the safety of placing vaccines containing chemicals like formaldehyde and mercury directly into the bloodstreams of babies, where they may be causing harm. If you catch the disease naturally, it enters through the mucous membranes in the nose and by the time the incubation period is over, your body has had a few days to develop antibodies against the disease, she says.
"I would not advise parents what to do," she adds. "I would only recommend that parents look at both sides."