Riskfactorphobic health professionals

In the light of the recent Nursing Times report, SIRC's warning was clearly justified, as the survey shows that ill-informed health professionals are now undermining a vital vaccination programme

Featured

Motherhood in Western Europe

Insights from Western European Mothers

The changing face of motherhood — Western Europe

The accompanying reports combine a review of existing literature with an analysis of original quantitative data derived from a poll of 9,582 mothers from 12 countries in Western Europe, making it one of the largest studies of this kind ever conducted

Child Obesity and Health

An analysis of the latest available data from the Health Survey for England (HSE)

Child Obesity and Health — download the full report in pdf format

In this ‘National Childhood Obesity Week’, the SIRC report, Children, obesity and heath: Recent trends, holds up a true mirror, accurately reflecting the trend towards slimmer, healthier children. more

The Future of Freemasonry

An examination of the role of Freemasonry in the 21st century

Freemasonry

This report is, as far as we know, an account of the first ever study that has been commissioned by Freemasons from a non-Masonic body. None of the SIRC members involved in the project are Freemasons, a fact that evoked surprise and welcome in equal measure from the Lodge members we met. more

The Changing Face of Motherhood

Insights from three generations of mothers

Motherhood

The report seeks to answer some specific questions about the changing face of motherhood and determine the extent to which modern ‘solutions’ to motherhood are more or less beneficial than the solutions of the past. more

Riskfactorphobic health professionals put children's lives in danger

A recent survey shows that unfounded panic about the MMR vaccine has spread to some health professionals, whose advice to parents is now based on tabloid scare stories rather than on scientific evidence.

In the Nursing Times (February 17), a GP is quoted as saying "I read a case in the Daily Mail of a child who had the MMR then within a couple of hours went into a coma and died. I tell parents I would not have my own children immunised."

The survey reveals that, following scare stories about MMR, 10% of health visitors and 8% of practice nurses may not recommend vaccination. As a result of such misguided advice, vaccination rates have now dropped below the level necessary to prevent an epidemic of a disease which really does kill children: measles. Dr Russell Dale, neurology registrar at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, warns that "Measles is a killer.if the vaccination programme is undermined, these diseases will return and start killing children."

In May last year, a SIRC bulletin raised concerns about the dangers of 'riskfactorphobia' – a common psychological side-effect of health scares, where people become hyper-sensitive to such scares and overreact

In August last year, in a bulletin entitled 'Scaremongers: the new threat to children's health', SIRC warned that 'riskfactorphobia' was set to become a major public health problem, citing the MMR vaccination crisis as a prime example.

In January this year, a SIRC bulletin highlighted an Australian survey showing that 'riskfactorphobic' GPs were giving misguided dietary advice to asthma sufferers. We warned that any sign of 'riskfactorphobia' among health professionals should be treated as potentially dangerous.

In the light of the recent Nursing Times report, SIRC's warning was clearly justified, as the survey shows that ill-informed health professionals are now undermining a vital vaccination programme – the only protection we have against an epidemic of a killer disease.

For the fourth time, and with increasing concern, we repeat the warning: misleading communication on health is putting children's lives at risk.